Seismic Performance Evaluation of Cold-Formed Steel Shear Walls Using Corrugated Steel Sheathing

Abstract

Cold-formed steel shear wall with corrugated sheet steel sheathing is a newly proposed lateral force resisting system from recent research work. The advantages of noncombustibility, high shear strength and high shear stiffness enable this new wall system to be a feasible solution for low- and midrise construction at high wind and seismic zones. The design provisions for this new type of shear wall have not been developed in current design specifications. The initial phase of this research project involved the displacement-based testing of bearing wall and shear wall specimens under combined lateral and gravity loading. The phase two research, presented here, includes the nonlinear finite element analysis and the performance evaluation of a set of light framed steel buildings using the corrugated sheet sheathed shear walls. Incremental dynamic analyses were performed on six archetype buildings and seismic performance assessment was evaluated. The results verify a set of seismic performance factors (R=Cd=6.5 and Ω=3.0) for the corrugated sheet sheathed shear wall systems.