Capacity of Screw Connections between Plasterboard Panels and Cold-Formed Steel for Modular Buildings

Abstract

Plasterboard panels attached to cold-formed steel trough screw connections are commonly used in prefabricated and modular building construction. Building modules are built in a factory as panelized or volumetric units and then delivered to site for assembly. Those modules experience different loading scenarios during lifting and transportation that may cause damages to nonstructural elements such as plasterboard panels and their connections. Therefore, the connection capacity of plasterboard to steel becomes an important design consideration for modular buildings. This paper presents an experimental and analytical study of the load capacity of such screw connections. Bearing tests were first conducted to examine the bearing behavior of plasterboard with screw shanks or metal strips as the bearing components. The connection performance with different screw sizes was then studied through single-lap shear tests. Finally, as validated by the experimental results, an analytical formulation was proposed based on the concept of equivalent diameter for the estimation of connection capacity.

Theoretical and experimental evaluation of timber-framed partitions under lateral drift

“…From past experimental results, it is found that the shear strength f r of gypsum plasterboard-to-timber screws (with screw gauge numbers 6, 8 and 10) is 0.5 kN [44,47,[52][53][54] and 0.66 kN [53] for single and double-layers of 10-12mm boards, respectively. However, overdriven screws and saturated/soaked plasterboard can reduce the shear strength f r of the connections by a factor of 1.3 and 4, respectively [55].…”

“…However, overdriven screws and saturated/soaked plasterboard can reduce the shear strength f r of the connections by a factor of 1.3 and 4, respectively [55]. There are several published articles from which the values of f r can be obtained [47,[52][53][54]. One of the examples of the screw-slip curve is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…It has been observed that the performance of walls generally depends on the type, size, and frequency of the screws (and/or adhesives), type and thickness of the plasterboard and the material properties, hold-down details, and the type of joint finish [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][44][45][46]. It is found that the plasterboard-toframe screws can maintain their load-carrying capacity during the bearing failure of the plasterboard, and as a result, the actual shear strength is higher than that given by equation 1 by a factor of 1.3 [52]. However, this overstrength can be usually negated when the screws are overdriven into the plasterboard [55].…”

Seismic performance of mid-to-high rise modular steel construction - A critical review

“…Xu et al [ 111 ] investigated the bending response of laminated double channel beams connected by bolts in MSC. In addition, Innella et al [ 112 ] investigated the load capacity of the screw connections between the plasterboard panels and cold-formed steel in MSC.…”

Reliability-based design optimisation of structural systems using high-order analytical moments

“…The FE model in Figure 7 was created based on the modelling techniques outlined in [72][73][74]. In this study, the structure is subjected to combination of dead load (including self-weight and superimposed dead load), live load and wind load.…”