Engineering Laboratory / Fire Research Division

National Fire Research Laboratory

Influence of Fire on the Lateral Resistance of Cold-Formed Steel Shear Walls – Phase 2

This study extends the Phase 1 project to experimentally investigate the performance of common lateral force-resisting systems (LFRS) used in cold-formed steel (CFS) construction under sequential thermal (fire) and mechanical (earthquake) loading. Wall specimens with gypsum-sheet steel composite sheathing, oriented strand board (OSB) sheathing, or steel strap bracing are tested. The tests provide data for a range of system performance under realistic fire conditions and can inform: fire compartmentation design when significant lateral deformation of the building is anticipated, post-fire assessment to repair or replace a structure, and first responder decisions to enter a building when earthquake aftershocks are likely.

Twenty-two 2.7 m by 3.7 m shear wall specimens consisting of 150 mm wide CFS framing were tested. All walls were designed to achieve a 1-hour fire-resistance rating per American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard E119. Heating was applied to the side of the wall opposite to the side where the shear-resisting elements are located; it is assumed that the shear-resisting elements line an egress corridor and the fire occurs in a room adjacent to the corridor. The walls are designed using Allowable Stress Design nominally following American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) standards S400-15/S1-16 and AISI S100-16.

Influence of Fire on the Lateral Resistance of Cold-Formed Steel Shear Walls (Project Overview)

DATA

Spreadsheets containing the data from the experiments can be downloaded here (click link).

In each spreadsheet, the worksheet titled 'Scaled Data' contains the data used to produce the figures and tables in the test report. The other worksheets provide information about the setup of the data acquisition system and sensor location drawings.

Information about the test program as well as sensor types, naming and uncertainties can be found in the test report .