Fire performance and design of light gauge steel frame wall systems made of hollow flange sections

Load bearing Light Gauge Steel Frame (LSF) wall system is a cold-formed steel structure made of cold-formed steel studs and lined on both sides by gypsum plasterboards. In recent times its use and demand in the building industry has significantly increased due to their advantages such as light weight, acoustic performance, aesthetic quality of finished wall, ease of fabrication and rapid constructability. Fire Resistant Rating (FRR) of these walls is given more attention due to the increasing number and severity of fire related accidents in residential buildings that have caused significant loss of lives and properties. LSF walls are commonly made of conventional lipped channel section studs lined with fire resistant gypsum plasterboards on both sides. Recently, greater attention has been given to innovative cold-formed steel sections such as hollow flange sections due to their improved structural efficiency. The reliance on expensive and time consuming full scale fire tests, and the complexity involved in predicting the fire performance of LSF wall studs due to their thin-walled nature and their exposure to non-uniform temperature distributions in fire on one side, have been the main barriers in using different cold-formed steel stud sections in LSF wall systems. This research overcomes this and proposes the new hollow flange section studs as vertical load bearing elements in LSF wall systems based on a thorough investigation into their fire (structural and thermal) performance using full scale fire tests and extensive numerical studies. Test wall frames made of hollow flange section studs were lined with fire resistant gypsum plasterboards on both sides, and were subjected to increasing temperatures as given by the standard fire curve in AS 1530.4 (SA, 2005) on one side. Both uninsulated and cavity insulated walls were tested with varying load ratios from 0.2 to 0.6. LiteSteel Beam (LSB), a welded hollow flange section, which was available in the industry was used to fabricate the test wall panels. Axial deformations and lateral displacements along with the time-temperature profiles of the steel stud and plasterboard surfaces were measured. Five full scale tests were performed, and the test results were compared with those of LSF walls made of lipped channel section studs, which proved the superior fire performance of LSF walls made of hollow flange section studs. The reasons for the superior fire performance are presented in this thesis. The effects of load ratio and plasterboard joint on the fire performance of LSF walls and temperature distribution across the stud cross-sections were identified. Improved plasterboard joints were also proposed. The elevated temperature mechanical properties of cold-formed steels appear to vary significantly as shown by past research. LSBs were manufactured using a combined cold-forming and electric resistance welding process. Elevated temperature mechanical properties of LSB plate elements are unknown. Therefore an experimental study was undertaken to determine the elevated temperature mechanical properties of LSB plate elements. Based on the test results and previous researchers' proposed values, suitable predictive equations were proposed for the elastic modulus and yield strength reduction factors and stress-strain models of LSB web and flange elements. Uninsulated and insulated 2D finite element models of LSF walls were developed in SAFIR using GiD as a pre- and post processor to predict the thermal performance under fire conditions. A new set of apparent thermal conductivity values was proposed for gypsum plasterboards for this purpose. These models were then validated by comparing the time-temperature profiles of stud and plasterboard surfaces with corresponding experimental results. The developed models were then used to conduct an extensive parametric study. Uninsulated and insulated LSF walls with superior fire performances were also proposed. Finite element models of tested walls were also developed and analysed under both transient and steady state conditions to predict the structural performance under fire conditions using ABAQUS. In these analyses, the measured elevated temperature properties of LSB plate elements were used to improve their accuracy. Finite element analysis results were compared with fire test results to validate the developed models. Following this, a detailed finite element analysis based study was conducted to investigate the effects of stud dimensions such as web depths and thicknesses, elevated temperature mechanical properties, types of wall configurations, stud section profiles, plasterboards to stud connections and realistic design fire curves on the fire performance of LSF walls. It was also shown that the commonly used critical temperature method is not appropriate in determining the FRR of LSF walls. Gunalan and Mahendran's (2013) design rules based on AS/NZS 4600 (SA, 2005), and Eurocode 3 Part 1.3 (ECS, 2006) were further improved to predict the structural capacity of hollow flange section studs subjected to non-uniform temperature distributions caused by fire on one side. Two improved methods were proposed and they predicted the FRRs with a reasonable accuracy. Direct Strength Method (DSM) based design rules were then established and they also predicted the FRR of LSF walls made of hollow flange section studs accurately. Finally, spread sheet based design tools were developed based on the proposed design rules. Overall, this research has developed comprehensive fire performance data of LSF walls made of hollow flange section studs, accurate design rules to predict their fire rating and associated design tools. Thus it has enabled the use of innovative hollow flange sections as studs in LSF wall systems. Structural and fire engineers can now use these tools to undertake complex calculations of determining the structural capacities and fire rating of hollow flange section studs subjected to non-uniform temperature distributions, and successfully design them for safe and efficient use in LSF walls of residential and office buildings