Numerical evaluation of shear strength of CFS shear wall panels for different height-to-width ratios

This paper presents a numerical evaluation of the shear strength of Cold Formed Steel Shear Wall Panels (CFS-SWPs) having 1.33:1 and 1:1 height-to-width aspect ratios with 0.76 mm steel plate sheathing thickness and 1:4, 1.33:1 and 1:1 height-to-width aspect ratios with 0.46 mm steel plate sheathing thickness, which are not provided by AISI S400. For this purpose, shell finite element (FE) models, validated with test results, are completed in ABAQUS v2018 with nonlinear geometry, material and connection. A good agreement is achieved between experimental and numerical results in terms of shear strength-lateral displacement and failure modes. It is concluded that, for a fixed height-to-width aspect ratio, the shear strength of SWPs having different screws spacing varying from 50.4 mm up to 152.4 can be assessed by interpolation using this FE method. However, by interloping the shear strength from 4:1 to 1:1 height-to-width aspect ratio, the shear strength can be underestimated; hence, it is more economical for practicing engineers to use the shear strength assessed by this proposed FE method for 1.33:1 and 1:1 height-to-width aspect ratios. Moreover, the effect of the sheathing thickness having 0.46 mm is evaluated and proposed as it lacks in data provided by the code (i.e., AISI S400).