Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Innovative Infrastructure Solutions (2021) 6:136 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-021-00500-5 TECHNICAL PAPER Experimental and numerical investigation of cold‑form steel wall frame panels with plasterboards under fexural loading Md Kamrul Hassan 1  · Olivia Mirza 2  · Fares Al‑Faily 2  · Rohan Dutt 2 Received: 14 January 2021 / Accepted: 12 March 2021 / Published online: 15 April 2021 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Abstract The structural behaviour of the cold-formed steel (CFS) wall panels under fexural loading is normally characterised by buckling modes, defection, fexural stifness. This research mainly investigates these fundamental behaviours of CFS wall panels at elastic limits where four-point bending loading has been incorporated into the panels. The paper presents the results of the experimental and numerical studies of the composite CFS wall panels. Three specimens are tested, and then the fnite element (FE) model has been developed and validated by comparing its results with test data. A parametric study has been conducted to investigate the composite behaviour of CFS wall panels with diferent combinations of CFS studs and gypsum plasterboards. The test and FE model results demonstrate that back-to-back CFS studs can be used to overcome the buckling problem for light load-bearing wall panels due to their higher rigidity. It is found that stud types and gypsum plasterboard have a signifcant infuence on the elastic behaviour and failure modes of the CFS wall panels. Keywords Cold-formed steel (CFS) · Wall panel · Gypsum plasterboard · Four-point bending test Introduction The use of composite cold-formed steel (CFS) systems has been increased for composite roofng, slab decks and wall panels for low to mid-rise building structures. Typical com- posite CFS wall panel consists of a stud, top and bottom tracks attached to gypsum plasterboard. Composite CFS wall panels are considered adequate due to their advantages. Gypsum plasterboard is used on either side of the CFS as it efectively isolates sound and is fre resistant. Besides, gypsum plasterboard can be used to minimise the lateral buckling behaviours against steel wall panels. CFS studs are provided in the wall panels to support their own self-weight and reduce the overall weight of the structure. Hence, CFS studs in a wall panel help a structure reduce the total weight and act as load-bearing infll walls. In addition to the lateral loads, gravity loads are also resisted by the wall panels. Baran and Alica [3] conducted several tests on difer- ent types of wall panels with diagonal struts and diferent sections and compared the results from various empirical formulae. Gunalan [4]) researched to investigate the elas- tic behaviour of CFS wall systems under high fre rating. The report concluded that the CFS wall using a compos- ite panel system has higher structural and thermal perfor- mance than other load-bearing walls with varying arrange- ments of gypsum plasterboard. However, the research did not look at the fundamental behaviour of CFS section failure mode. Therefore, the analysis herein is going to study these failure modes. Lee and Miller [15] researched a composite wall panel with two C-sections with gypsum plasterboards on either side. The assumption taken in their research was that the axial load acts on the centroid of the cross-section. The fexural and the combined efect of tor- sional and fexural buckling loads is calculated using the diferential equation of equilibrium and an energy method. To study the behaviour of the local and distortional fail- ure of the standard CFS sections, Yu and Schafer [ 26] conducted a series of experimental tests on C-sections and Z-sections. They examined the infuence of moment gradient on distortional buckling of CFS beams. Maduliat et al. [16] conducted a research to study the failure behav- iour of 42 CFS sections under pure bending. Their study * Md Kamrul Hassan k.hassan@westernsydney.edu.au 1 School of Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia 2 School of Engineering, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia