Novel Energy Dissipation Bracing Designed for Corrugated Sheet–Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Shear Wall

Abstract

This study developed a special energy dissipation X-bracing for cold-formed steel (CFS) shear walls to improve the ductility of the corrugated steel sheathing. In previous research, CFS shear walls with corrugated sheathing demonstrated poor ductility under cyclic loading. The paper presents a potential solution by adding a special energy dissipation bracing (EDB) to improve the ductility of the corrugated sheet–sheathed shear walls. The EDB can be tuned according to the CFS shear wall base performance to achieve the highest postpeak deflection capacity, thereby significantly improving the seismic ductility. To prove the concept and analyze the feasibility of the new EDB, a test program of nine full-scale shear walls was conducted. The experimental results showed that with the tuned EDB, the corrugated steel sheet–sheathed shear walls had improved ductility with no considerable reduction in the initial stiffness and shear strength. Installing the proposed EDB can be an efficient approach to enhance the seismic performance of CFS-framed shear walls. Details of the test program and discussion are presented.