ABSTRACT
Light gauge steel members obtained by cold forming steel sheets, are widely used as part of floor slabs in civil constructions. On the other side, their practical use in seismic resistant structures are very reduced, even if it is slowly increasing during last years. This is principally due to the actual international seismic codes, which strongly penalize such type of members with a low reduction of elastic seismic actions, mainly related on local buckling phenomena and the corresponding lack in dissipation capacity.
