Numerical Analyses of the Global Response of Cold Formed Steel Shear Wall with Trapezoidal Sheathing

A common lateral force resisting system for cold-formed steel (CFS) structures in seismic areas consists of Shear Walls Panel (SWP) sheathed with trapezoidal steel sheets. Under lateral load, the global response and several failure modes have been manifesting and are still attracting designers’ and researchers’ attention. The present work put forward a sufficiently detailed numerical analysis of the global response of CFS-SWP with trapezoidal steel sheathing. A Finite Element (FE) modeling is developed using the ABAQUS software, taking into account material and geometrical nonlinearities, as well as assembled sheathing-to-framing connections. Monotonic pushover loading is imposed on the CFS-SWP and general static nonlinear analyses are performed. The results of the FE modeling are validated with available experimental data, and a good agreement is achieved, namely: nonlinear strength-displacements response, ultimate shear strength and corresponding displacements, and initial stiffness. Moreover, the shear strength capacity of the trapezoidal SWP with different lengths, out of the AISI S400-15 configurations is evaluated through a parametric study and presented to engineers and designers. In addition, the developed FE modeling can be used to simulate and evaluate the shear strength of steel trapezoidal CFS shear wall panels with other mechanical and geometrics characteristics.