Seismic performance of cold-formed steel framed shear walls with steel sheathing and gypsum board

Abstract Cold-formed steel (CFS) framed shear walls with steel sheathing and gypsum board can achieve higher shear resistance compared to conventional CFS framed shear walls. Monotonic and cyclic loading tests on nine full-scale CFS shear walls were conducted to determine the influence of stud and steel sheathed thickness, sheathing material, wall aspect ratio and loading mode. The failure modes, ultimate shear capacity, load-deformation relationships, shear strength, lateral stiffness and ductility of walls were obtained. The structural analysis software OpenSees was used to establish nonlinear simplified models of shear walls under cyclic loading. The hysteresis curve obtained from simplified models showed significant pinch effect and degradation of strength and stiffness. The conclusions and the numerical simulation methods can be applied to the seismic design of CFS framed shear walls with steel sheathing and gypsum board.