Investigations on Cold Formed Steel Stud Wall Systems Subjected to Blast Loads

Abstract

In recent decades, awareness of civil engineering construction has rapidly increased. More advanced technologies are used to safeguard important civil engineering structures from terrorist attacks. Cold-formed steel (CFS) stud walls have high resistivity against blast loading due to their integral properties. To safeguard human lives from blast loading, there are two important structural considerations to be made such as maintaining the structural integrity and shielding the occupant from debris fog. The solution for that condition is forming an exterior steel stud wall. The objective of providing the stud wall is to limit the deformation and absorb more kinetic energy from the threat level. Cold-formed steel stud walls protect occupants and buildings from explosions similar to car air bags by incorporating time delay mechanisms in corrugated stud arrangements. Hence, the cold-formed steel stud wall functions as a passive control mechanism to safeguard the structures against explosions. The energy absorption has been enhanced by using sheathing materials which are primarily composed of gypsum board and oriented strand board (OSB). It mitigates the premature failure of connections in wall assembly caused by blast events newline