Innovative Cold-Formed Steel Framed Shear Wall Sheathed with Corrugated Steel Sheets: Experiments and Dynamic Analysis

Cold-formed steel framed shear wall sheathed with corrugated steel sheets is a promising shear wall system for low- and mid-rise constructions in high wind and seismic zones due to its advantages of non-combustibility, high shear strength, and high stiffness. However recent research projects showed that the corrugated steel sheathing demonstrated low ductility. This paper presents an experimental study aimed at improving the ductility of cold-formed steel shear walls sheathed with corrugated steel sheathing. A method of using opening in the sheathing is employed to improve the shear wall’s ductility meanwhile controlling the damage locations and failure mechanism. A total of 11 sheathing configurations were investigated and 19 monotonic and cyclic full-scale shear wall tests were conducted in this project. The research discovered that with proper opening in the sheathing, the corrugated sheet shear wall can yield significantly improved ductility while maintaining high-level shear strength. Additionally, nonlinear dynamic analyses were also carried on to verify the building’s seismic performance when the innovative shear wall was installed. The dynamic analyses show that the new shear wall system can greatly reduce the seismic effects and decrease the building’s collapse probability