General Overview
Load-resisting system in a typical CFSF building consists of frames made of cold-formed steel sections and sheathing panels applied on sides of these frames. Various sheathing materials can be used for having strength, but wood-based materials and gypsum boards are widely used in recent years.
CFS frames for wall panels can be either prepared on site or prefabricated in the factory. Computer programs are widely used for design and manufacture of CFSF buildings. Model of a building produced by such a computer program, together with the assembled CFS framing is illustrated in Fig 1.
Figure 1. Typical CFS Framing
The most common form of foundation used for CFSF buildings is a raft foundation similar to the one shown in Fig. 1.2. Following the construction of the foundation, the assembled wall frames were connected to the foundation slab through tension and shear connectors. Fig. 1.3 shows a typical tension hold-down connector placed in position.
Figure 2. Construction of a typical foundation
Figure 3. Wall panel to foundation connection
Application of sheathing panels usually starts after all Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) frames were placed in position. Most of the sheathing panels used in Cold-Formed Steel Framed (CFSF) construction have different shear stiffness in two orthogonal directions. Therefore, shear resistance of the CFS wall panels depends on whether the sheathing panels were attached on CFS frames in the horizontal or vertical orientation. An example of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) sheathed panels placed in vertical orientation is shown in Fig. 4. The exterior and interior view of a finished CFSF residential building is given in Fig. 5.
Figure 4. Sheathing application
Figure 5. Exterior and interior view of finished building
References
[1] Baran E, Alica C, (2013). LATERAL LOAD BEHAVIOR OF COLD-FORMED STEEL WALL PANELS.
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