Behavior of cold-formed steel wall panels under monotonic horizontal loading

This paper summarizes the findings of an experimental study on cold-formed steel (CFS) wall panels with oriented strand board (OSB) sheathing. Static lateral load tests were conducted on a total of thirteen full-scale wall panel specimens to investigate the performance of CFS walls utilizing primarily the construction details used in Turkey. Experimental results revealed that the geometry of hold-down attachment used at the base of CFS wall panels to transfer tensile forces has a major effect on the overall behavior of the panels. Extensive damage was observed to occur in the hold-down attachment and in part of the bottom track adjacent to the hold-down, which prevented the wall panels to exhibit the stiffness associated with the main load resisting mechanisms. Tilting of the screws connecting the OSB sheathing to the CFS boundary framing members, as well as the separation of sheathing from the framing members were other commonly observed deformation modes. Existence of diagonal struts inside CFS frame was determined to cause a slight increase in load capacity and initial stiffness of the panels. It is also shown that the measured load capacity of wall panels can be predicted with an acceptable accuracy using design equations available in the literature. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.