Behavior of Full-Scale Cold-Formed Steel Buildings under Seismic Excitations

The experimental behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) structures under seismic loads remains relatively unexplored. Modern design codes are based on member and sub- system level testing and have not been validated at the system level. The work detailed herein represents the full-scale experimental component of the multi-year NSF-funded project CFS-NEES (part of the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The overarching goal of this work is to improve structural design codes at the system level and to provide validation of and calibration for high-throughput computational models. To this end, two full-scale two-story CFS-framed buildings [23 ft. x 50 ft.] were tested with 141 different excitations on the shake tables at the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) at the University of Buffalo. The first building was outfitted with the structural system only, consisting of CFS framing with oriented strand board (OSB) sheathed shear walls as the lateral force resisting system. The second building was nominally identical to the first in structural system, but was fully finished with exterior OSB, interior gypsum, partition walls, floor systems, stairways, and weatherproofing. The building specimens were outfitted with 168 sensors to capture general building behavior; multi-story shear wall behavior; load transfer to and from shear walls; the impact of nonstructural finishing on building performance; effect of openings on building motion; diaphragm flexibility; and to identify the system characteristics. Results are described within, and comparisons to existing design codes and sub-system level tests are presented and design recommendations are formulatedNational Science Foundatio

Behavior of Full-Scale Cold-Formed Steel Buildings under Seismic Excitations

The experimental behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) structures under seismic loads remains relatively unexplored. Modern design codes are based on member and sub- system level testing and have not been validated at the system level. The work detailed herein represents the full-scale experimental component of the multi-year NSF-funded project CFS-NEES (part of the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The overarching goal of this work is to improve structural design codes at the system level and to provide validation of and calibration for high-throughput computational models. To this end, two full-scale two-story CFS-framed buildings [23 ft. x 50 ft.] were tested with 141 different excitations on the shake tables at the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) at the University of Buffalo. The first building was outfitted with the structural system only, consisting of CFS framing with oriented strand board (OSB) sheathed shear walls as the lateral force resisting system. The second building was nominally identical to the first in structural system, but was fully finished with exterior OSB, interior gypsum, partition walls, floor systems, stairways, and weatherproofing. The building specimens were outfitted with 168 sensors to capture general building behavior; multi-story shear wall behavior; load transfer to and from shear walls; the impact of nonstructural finishing on building performance; effect of openings on building motion; diaphragm flexibility; and to identify the system characteristics. Results are described within, and comparisons to existing design codes and sub-system level tests are presented and design recommendations are formulatedNational Science Foundatio

Behavior of Full-Scale Cold-Formed Steel Building under Seismic Excitations

The experimental behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) structures under seismic loads remains relatively unexplored. Modern design codes are based on member and sub-system level testing and have not been validated at the system level. The work detailed herein represents the full-scale experimental component of the multi-year NSF-funded project CFS-NEES (part of the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The overarching goal of this work is to improve structural design codes at the system level and to provide validation of and calibration for high-throughput computational models. To this end, two full-scale two-story CFS-framed buildings [23 ft. x 50 ft.] were tested with 141 different excitations on the shake tables at the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) at the University of Buffalo. The first building was outfitted with the structural system only, consisting of CFS framing with oriented strand board (OSB) sheathed shear walls as the lateral force resisting system. The second building was nominally identical to the first in structural system, but was fully finished with exterior OSB, interior gypsum, partition walls, floor systems, stairways, and weatherproofing. The building specimens were outfitted with 168 sensors to capture general building behavior; multi-story shear wall behavior; load transfer to and from shear walls; the impact of nonstructural finishing on building performance; effect of openings on building motion; diaphragm flexibility; and to identify the system characteristics. Results are described within, and comparisons to existing design codes and sub-system level tests are presented and design recommendations are formulate

Behavior of Full-Scale Cold-Formed Steel Building under Seismic Excitations

The experimental behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) structures under seismic loads remains relatively unexplored. Modern design codes are based on member and sub-system level testing and have not been validated at the system level. The work detailed herein represents the full-scale experimental component of the multi-year NSF-funded project CFS-NEES (part of the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). The overarching goal of this work is to improve structural design codes at the system level and to provide validation of and calibration for high-throughput computational models. To this end, two full-scale two-story CFS-framed buildings [23 ft. x 50 ft.] were tested with 141 different excitations on the shake tables at the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL) at the University of Buffalo. The first building was outfitted with the structural system only, consisting of CFS framing with oriented strand board (OSB) sheathed shear walls as the lateral force resisting system. The second building was nominally identical to the first in structural system, but was fully finished with exterior OSB, interior gypsum, partition walls, floor systems, stairways, and weatherproofing. The building specimens were outfitted with 168 sensors to capture general building behavior; multi-story shear wall behavior; load transfer to and from shear walls; the impact of nonstructural finishing on building performance; effect of openings on building motion; diaphragm flexibility; and to identify the system characteristics. Results are described within, and comparisons to existing design codes and sub-system level tests are presented and design recommendations are formulate

Extragenital Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Among Louisiana Parish Health Units, 2016–2019

BackgroundThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that men who have sex with men (MSM) get tested annually for urethral and rectal chlamydia (CT) and gonorrhea (NG), and pharyngeal NG. There are no national recommendations to screen women and heterosexual men at extragenital sites. We assessed extragenital CT/NG screening among men and women at Louisiana's Parish Health Units (PHU).MethodsThe Louisiana STD/HIV/Hepatitis Program piloted extragenital screening at 4 PHUs in February 2016 and expanded to 11 PHUs in 2017. Sexual histories were used to identify gender of sex partners and exposed sites. Because of billing restrictions, up to 2 anatomical sites were tested for CT/NG.ResultsFrom February 2016 to June 2019, 70,895 urogenital and extragenital specimens (56,086 urogenital, 13,797 pharyngeal, and 1,012 rectal) were collected from 56,086 patients. Pharyngeal CT positivity was 160 of 7,868 (2.0%) among women, 54 of 4,838 (1.1%) among men who have sex with women (MSW) and 33 of 1,091 (3.0%) among MSM. Rectal CT positivity was 51 of 439 (11.6%) among women and 95 of 573 (16.6%) among MSM. Pharyngeal NG positivity was 299 of 7,868 (3.8%) among women, 222 of 4,838 (4.6%) among MSW, and 97 of 1,091 (8.9%) among MSM. Rectal NG positivity was 20 of 439 (4.6%) among women and 134 of 573 (23.4%) among MSM.Urogenital-only screening would have missed: among women, 173 of 3,923 (4.4%) CT and 227 of 1,480 (15.3%) NG infections; among MSW, 26 of 2,667 (1%) CT and 149 of 1,709 (8.7%) NG infections; and among MSM, 116 of 336 (34.5%) CT and 127 of 413 (42.1%) NG infections.ConclusionsMany CT/NG infections would have been missed with urogenital-only screening. Men who have sex with men had much higher extragenital infection rates than women and MSW