Seismic Performance of Wall-stud Shear Walls

The ever-increasing need for housing generated the search for new and innovative building methods to increase speed, efficiency and enhance quality, one direction being the use of light steel profiles as load bearing elements and different materials for cladding. Wind and seismic behavior of these structures is influenced by the hysteretic characteristics of the shear wall panels. In this paper a review of actual research in the field and results of a full-scale shear test program on wall panels are presented. Based on tests, a numerical equivalent model for hysteretic behavior of wall panels working in shear was built to be used in 3D dynamic nonlinear analysis of cold-formed steel framed buildings