EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE LATERAL RESISTANCE OF CFS SHEAR WALLS

In recent years, the attention grew toward sustainability issues. This led to the popularity of residential buildings made of cold formed steel profiles. In these systems the lateral bracing is provided by the shear walls. Their complex response calls for the design by testing approach. At the University of Trento an experimental study is in progress of the shear wall response under monotonic and cyclic loading. Five shear wall configurations differing in the steel skeleton and sheathings type are comprised in the programme. The paper presents the main features of the testing set-up and the preliminary results related to two shear wall configurations. The key role of sheathing-to-steel framing connections is pointed out.