Fastener behaviour in sheathed light‐gauge steel stud walls under cyclic and monotonic actions.

Steel framed buildings using digitally fabricated light‐gauge steel sections, combined with an offsite panelised fabrication approach, are becoming more widespread and contribute towards reducing cost and erection time without requiring a large workforce to assemble them. Currently, design standards mandate the use of K‐ or X‐bracing in these structures, thus neglecting the beneficial influence of the sheathing on the behaviour of the system, in particular its resistance to lateral loads. This composite behaviour is largely influenced by the performance of the fasteners, which may exhibit tilting, shear failure and fastener pull‐out. This paper takes a first step towards accounting for composite action between light‐gauge steel stud framing and calcium silicate board by focusing on the behaviour of the screws connecting both. Key failure modes are identified, based on direct pull‐out tests and monotonic and cyclic connector shear tests. Significant pinching behaviour was observed under cyclic excitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]