Effects of gypsum plasterboard lining on the strength of cold-formed steel wall studs

Cold-formed Light gauge Steel Frame (LSF) walls lined with plasterboards are increasingly used in the building industry as primary load bearing components. Gypsum plasterboard is a common LSF wall lining material used with cold-formed steel studs. In general, gypsum plasterboards are screwed to studs at 300 mm spacing along the height and provide lateral restraints to the studs. The design of these LSF wall panels does not fully utilize the strengthening effect of plasterboards screw fastened to studs. Therefore there is a need to fully understand the structural behaviour of both sides lined LSF wall panels and develop appropriate design rules. Hence an experimental study was conducted using cold-formed steel studs subject to both local and distortional bucking effects. LSF wall panels were tested with two different stud sections and plasterboard lining with two different screw spacings. Experimental ultimate capacities were compared with the predictions from the design rules in AS/NZS 4600, which showed that the current design rules are conservative. In order to fully understand the behaviour of both sides lined LSF wall panels, finite element models of tested panels were also developed and analysed. This paper presents the details of the experimental study and finite element modelling of both sides lined LSF wall panels, and the results