Analysis of multistory frames with light gauge steel panel infills

Cladding and partitions are known to have a significant effect on the behavior of structures, yet that effect is generally ignored in design. The objective of this investigation is to study the use of light gauge steel cladding and/or partitions to control drift of multistory frames. The investigation deals only with the service load behavior of an infilled multistory frame assuming linear elastic behavior of all components. A computer program is written to analyze a general three dimensional structure including shear walls, infills and rigid or flexible floors. The equation solution routine makes use of a variation of Gaussian elimination known as wavefront processing. A documented program listing and flow charts are included. The requirements which the connections between frame and panels must meet are determined and details proposed. An "exact" idealization of the light gauge infill which models the proposed construction as nearly as possible is developed for use in studying suitability of the infill. The light gauge steel sheets making up the panel are idealized as assemblies of orthotropic, plane stress rectangular finite elements with two degrees of freedom at each corner. The connections of sheet to sheet and sheet to frame, which are assumed to be welded, are modelled as springs whose spring constants are found experimentally. Single story, single bay frames with different member sizes infilled with panels of different thicknesses are used to demonstrate that the reduction in drift obtained using infills is