Shear Performance of Different Interstory Connections in Fabricated Light‐Steel Walls

The interstory connections of light‐steel walls, as a critical part for force transmission in light‐steel structures, directly affects the lateral deformation of the wall and the effective transfer of interstory shear force. Little study has been conducted on the interstory connections of light‐steel walls previously. Thus, 18 specimens were experimentally investigated to study the shear performance of interstory connections in light‐steel walls. The effects of stiffener length, screw number, and web connection on the shear performance of the interstory connections were examined. The influence of various interstory connection configurations on the failure modes, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, stiffness curves, and shear bearing capacity of the specimens was analyzed. The results showed that the joists buckled earlier when only hold‐down bolts were provided, and the shear performance of the specimens did not significantly improve. When stiffeners were provided, the shear capacity of the specimens increased, while the stiffness showed no significant variation. Additionally, changing the stiffener length had little effect on the specimen’s stiffness, and the number of screws connecting the stiffeners to the joists had no significant effect on the stiffness. For specimens with stiffeners and rigid blockings, the force performance improved considerably. Additionally, the shear capacity and stiffness of the specimens with rigid blockings were increased by 1.3 and 2.2 times, respectively. The number of screws connecting the rigid blockings to angles and stiffeners had no significant effect on the stiffness of the interstory connections in light‐steel walls. Based on the test results, the formula for calculating the shear stiffness of light‐steel structure interstory connections was established. The calculation results coincide well with the test results.