Lateral performance of plywood-sheathed cold-formed steel shear wall: Experimental and numerical investigations

Plywood, as an engineered wood product, offers excellent mechanical properties and cost-effectiveness, making it a promising sheathing candidate for cold-formed steel (CFS) shear walls. However, limited research has hindered its application compared to other sheathing materials. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation into the lateral performance of plywood-sheathed CFS shear walls. Fifteen full-scale specimens were tested to evaluate the effects of sheathing thickness, perimeter screw spacing, screw diameter, and loading protocol. For a configuration with 2.44 × 2.44 m size, 12 mm sheathing, 4.8 mm screws, and 150 mm perimeter screw spacing, the wall exhibited an elastic stiffness of 1.47 kN/mm and a shear strength of 16.1 kN/m. Results indicate that shear performance is governed by connection behavior. Densifying perimeter screws to 50 mm significantly enhanced shear capacity but may lead to a reduction in ductility if the framing is not concurrently strengthened. A detailed finite element model was developed and verified against the experimental data. A subsequent parametric study investigated the effects of stud spacing, stud section size, field screw spacing, and wall aspect ratio on wall performance. Results indicated that increasing stud spacing reduces shear capacity, whereas stud section size has negligible impact on ultimate strength under proper overstrength design, and shear strength per unit length remained relatively constant for aspect ratios up to 2:1. • Lateral performance of 15 plywood-sheathed CFS shear walls was experimentally tested. • Connection behavior, mostly screw pull-through, governs the shear performance. • Capacity design is required to ensure ductile failure in high-capacity walls. • Validated FE model reveals constant shear strength for aspect ratios up to 2:1.