Behavior of steel-sheathed shear walls subjected to seismic and fire loads

Abstract

A series of tests was conducted on six 2.7 m × 3.7 m shear wall specimens consisting of cold-formed steel framing sheathed on one side with sheet steel adhered to gypsum board and on the opposite side with plain gypsum board. The specimens were subjected to various sequences of simulated seismic shear deformation and fire exposure to study the influence of multi-hazard interactions on the lateral load resistance of the walls. The test program was designed to complement a parallel effort at the University of California, San Diego to investigate a six-story building subjected to earthquakes and fires. The test results reported here indicate that the fire exposure caused a shift in the failure mode of the walls from local buckling of the sheet steel in cases without fire exposure, to global buckling of the sheet steel with an accompanying 35 % reduction in lateral load capacity after the wall had been exposed to fire. This behavior appears to be predictable, which is encouraging from the standpoint of residual lateral load capacity under these severe multi-hazard actions.

Fire resistance of cold‐formed steel framed shear walls under various fire scenarios

“…The fire tests included tests to assess repeatability (designated with an “R”). The influence of earthquake pre‐damage to the specimens was investigated for the OSB sheathed and steel strap‐braced walls; the gypsum‐sheet steel composite walls were studied previously . This paper presents results related to the fire performance of the walls.…”

“…The influence of earthquake pre-damage to the specimens was investigated for the OSB sheathed and steel strap-braced walls; the gypsum-sheet steel composite walls were studied previously. 15 The HRR levels for the burner were based on modeling of the test As shown in Figure 4, the natural gas fuelled compartment was instrumented as follows:…”

“…The first phase of the study investigated the performance of gypsum‐sheet steel composite panel sheathed shear walls under a specific fire exposure . The results showed that the failure mode shifted from local to global buckling of the sheathing as a consequence of the fire exposure and highlighted the relevance of the gypsum boards on the performance of the walls . The second phase of the study extended the work to two additional types of CFS walls and various levels of fire severity .…”

“…13,14 The results showed that the failure mode shifted from local to global buckling of the sheathing as a consequence of the fire exposure and highlighted the relevance of the gypsum boards on the performance of the walls. 15 The second phase of the study extended the work to two additional types of CFS walls and various levels of fire severity. 16 In the second phase, 22 wall specimens were subjected sequentially to various combinations of cyclic shear deformation and fire load.…”

Experimental seismic performance evaluation of modular lightweight steel buildings within the ELISSA project

“…Just recently, a study of earthquake and postearthquake fire behaviour of a 6‐storey CFS‐framed building was developed by a group of researchers and industries (Wang et al; Hoehler et al). The centrepiece of the project involved full‐scale earthquake and fire testing of a full‐scale 6‐storey CFS building, with uniform plan dimension of 10.4 m × 7.3 m and total height of 19.2 m. The tests were carried out after the shake table tests presented in this paper.…”