An analysis of seismic behavior of brick shear wall in cold-formed steel frame

The light steel frame system is a new construction technology system and is more economical than other construction methods due to its lightness, ease of installation, high execution speed, and ease of repair. In this article, for the first time, the effect of stud spacing and execution method on the seismic behavior of brick shear walls in a cold-formed steel frame (CFSF) was investigated. For this purpose, 6 shear walls, A1: shear wall was made of steel frame with the dimensions of 2400 × 600 mm; A2: shear wall was the same as A1 wall, with the difference that the brick is installed in two stages; B1 and B2: B1 and B2 shear walls were made of steel frames with dimensions of 2400 × 1200 mm; C1 and C2 Shear walls are similar to B1 and B2 walls, the difference is that in these walls, all the space inside the frame was filled with expanded polystyrene plates and mortar was applied outside the frame and on it were made using CFSF, cement sand mortar, wire mesh, expanded polystyrene, automatic screw, ceramic and clay brick. After processing in the laboratory, these walls were subjected to seismic loading. By calculating the over-strength factor and ductility reduction factor using experimental results, it was determined that building the wall in one step (A1 compared to A2) and increasing the distance between the studs (B1 and B2 compared to A1) would increase the shear strength, but this does not cause a significant change in the behavior factor. Also, using the two methods of Uang and Pauli to calculate the behavior factor leads to almost the same results.