Experimental behavior of a full-scale housing section built with cold-formed steel shear wall panels under horizontal monotonic and cyclic loading

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the behavior of the cold- formed steel shear wall panel (CFSSWP) with fibrocement panels as sheathing, when it is subjected in-plane shear deformations and flexural deformation under perpendicular monotonically increasing horizontal loads on the longest plane. A full-scale housing section was built with three walls and a ceiling using commonly used construction details in El Salvador. The strength and stiffness of the experimental specimen tested overcame significantly critical demand imposed by the technical design standards in this country. Additionally, a simplified finite element model was defined with the objective to analyze stresses in the components. The results of the numerical model were similar to the experimental model tested.