Shear behaviour of screw connections in plasterboard sheathed cold- formed steel-framed ceiling diaphragms: experimental and comparative study

ABSTRACT

In Australian domestic structures, steel framing and sheathing panels are usually connected using screws. The ceiling diaphragm plays an important role in distributing lateral loads to the bracing walls. Shear connection tests could be used to observe the ceiling diaphragm performance without the complexity of testing full-scale isolated diaphragms. In this research, numerous inexpensive tests have been conducted to replicate representative tests to determine the parameters outlining the load-displacement behaviour for the screw connections between cold-formed steel framing members and plasterboard sheathing. All investigations of shear connection tests have focused on monotonic loading testing. These tests are aimed to determine the lower and upper bounds of the load-displacement curves for typical cold-formed steel framing-to-plasterboard screw connections in ceiling diaphragms. Finally, finite element (FE) models were developed by utilising these test results and predicted the performance of full-sized plasterboard-clad cold-formed steel framed ceiling diaphragms under lateral loading.

KEYWORDS:

• Shear connection test
• cold-formed steel
• monotonic loading
• FE model
• ceiling diaphragm
• lateral loading

Acknowledgments

The work presented in this research article was part of a PhD research project funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant LP110100430. The contributions of NASH members who provided financial and technical support are also highly acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [LP110100430].