QuakeCoRE Seminar: Seismic Behaviour of Cold-formed Steel Strap-braced Stud Walls (2022)

QuakeCoRE Seminar Series: Seismic Behaviour of Cold-formed Steel Strap-braced Stud Walls as Lateral Force Resisting Systems for Residential Mid-rise Buildings - Pouya Lofti Rad (2022)
This Seminar was held on Friday 28 October 2022
Presented by: Pouya Lotfi Rad and Charles Clifton (both University of Auckland)
The use of cold-formed steel (CFS) construction has increased significantly worldwide in the past few decades, especially in the construction of portal frames and low-rise to mid-rise residential buildings. Cold-formed steel construction, compared to more traditional hot rolled steel and timber framed construction, provides many advantages such as being lightweight, dimensionally stable, fast to build, rot and insect resistant, recyclable, sustainable, and having high potential for computer aided design and manufacture. Although much research has been done on CFS-related topics, there are still many gaps in our knowledge of system structural behavior, particularly in severe earthquakes. In this experimental research, a series of component tests along with full-scale wall tests are being undertaken to investigate the seismic behavior of the strap-braced stud-walls as lateral force resisting systems (LFRS) for residential medium-rise buildings. This testing is using a novel test rig which is capable of applying constant vertical load during lateral cyclic testing and which subjects the walls to the loading conditions encountered when these are part of the vertical load bearing system and the lateral load resisting system. The wall behaviour under combined actions can be different to that under lateral loading alone, as has been previously tested in the conventional P21 tests. The different configurations of strap-braced stud walls, along with currently used K-braced frames and plasterboard braced frames are all being tested in the current test series.
Pouya Lotfi Rad is a PhD student in Structural Earthquake Engineering at the University of Auckland. He obtained his BSc in Civil Engineering & MSc in Earthquake Engineering from the top two universities of Iran. After MSc, he continued his cooperation with his supervisors as a Research Assistant for two years at the Centre of Physical Modelling Laboratory at the University of Tehran, where he had an opportunity to get involved in a wide variety of experimental studies. In parallel, as a part time structural engineer, he dealt with real projects to combine his knowledge and practice. After being granted the highly competitive University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship (UoADS), he's started his PhD since 2019. He has also been Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) in some courses at UoA including the postgrad course of Light Gauge Steel Design.
Charles Clifton graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) in 1978 and a Master of Civil Engineering in 1979. From 1979 to 1981 he worked for a major New Zealand consulting engineering firm, (now) Beca Consultants, then from 1981 to 1983 for a joint UK/Saudi Arabian consulting engineering firm in London, RH Sanbar Consultants, Ltd. In 1983, Charles started the Structural Division of the New Zealand Heavy Engineering Research Association (HERA). He has been an expert advisor to the National Association of Steel Framed Housing (NASH NZ) since its formation 1989, and had a leading role in establishing Steel Construction New Zealand (SCNZ) in 1994. The outputs from all this research have been presented to the consulting engineering profession; first as design guides, starting in 1984 and then into new and revised Standards and codes of practice, from 1989. He obtained his PhD from the University of Auckland in 2005. In 2008, he joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, specialising in structural steel and composite engineering in both heavy and light gauge steel and focusing on the performance of different types of structural steel systems in severe earthquake, severe fire and durability, with special emphasis on resilience of these buildings in both earthquake and fire. He is a Life Member of NZSEE and SESOC and a Distinguished Fellow of Engineering New Zealand.
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