Experimental study on shear performance of composite cold-formed ultra-thin-walled steel shear wall

Abstract

Cold-formed ultra-thin-walled steel shear wall shows excellent performance. The house constructed using the cold-formed ultra-steel shear wall is composed of continuous single-layer walls, including the floor joints between wall segments. The wall is coordinated to deform through floor joints and the weak part is located at the floor joints. In this paper the test results of nine TCS walls (upper and lower adjacent composite cold-formed ultra-thin-walled steel shear interior wall including floor joints) are reported. The effects of different factors, including axial compression, section height of stud, type of anchor bolt, under cyclic loading on the shear performance of TCS walls are discussed. The results show that, the existence of the axial compression accelerates the screw failure, resulting in reduced bearing capacity. The section height of the wall stud and axial compression of the wall have greater effect on the bearing capacity of TCS wall. Engineers should pay more attention to the influence of wall axial compression. TCS wall experiences progressive damage of multiple components. The degradation of the bearing capacity and stiffness are relatively slow. Cumulative damage is the reason why the TCS wall could not continue to carry loading. For TCS wall with the two nuts on one anchor bolt, screws bear tension-shear action after anchor bolt tilts, and thus the screws and the anchor bolt fail rapidly. After the addition of spatial steel bar truss at the floor joints, the screws only bear the shear force, which improves the wall resistance to damage.