Cold-Formed Steel Shear Wall Using Corrugated Steel Sheathing with Slits

Abstract

Recent research shows that shear walls with corrugated steel sheathing demonstrate high strength and high initial stiffness but low ductility. This paper presents an experimental study and numerical simulation aimed at improving the ductility of cold-formed steel shear walls sheathed with corrugated steel sheathing. A method of introducing slit openings in the field of sheathing is used to improve the shear wall’s ductility and control the failure mode and location. Ten full-scale shear wall specimens are tested, including six different slit configurations. The results show that with proper a slit pattern in the sheathing, the corrugated steel sheathed shear wall can yield significantly improved ductility while maintaining a high level of shear strength. Additionally, nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out to verify the improvement of the building’s seismic performance when the innovative shear wall is installed. The dynamic analyses show that the new shear wall system can greatly reduce the seismic effects and decrease the collapse probability of cold-formed steel buildings.