The behaviour of composite walling under construction and service loading

Composite walling is defined for the purpose of this paper as a vertical load-bearing system formed from two skins of light gauge, profiled, steel sheeting infilled with concrete to create a composite section. The system is a natural development of composite flooring, which is now predominant in steel-framed building structures. This paper describes the walling system, the proposed construction methodology and four full-scale pilot tests on axially-loaded wall elements. It will be shown that the main advantage is associated with ease of construction, however, the low interface bond strength obtained from commercially-available decking restricts the development of the full axial capacity.