ABSTRACT
Over recent years, residential construction using cold-formed steel stud wall systems is steadily gaining popularity in the Australian market. A re search project that aims to investigate whether plasterboard assists in the overall structural capacity of a plasterboard-single-lined-steel-stud-wall in terms of axial capacity, bending stiffness and flexural strength has been carried out by the authors. This paper extracts the nonlinear finite element analysis using ABAQUS to model single-plasterboard-lined panels under axial load in comparison to un-lined steel frames. Geometric imperfections, different contact conditions and geometric and material nonlinearities were all considered in the model. The analysis results were compared with those obtained from experiments with good agreement. The results indicated that the axial failure load of a single-lined panel was approximately 56% higher than that of unsheathed steel frames, hence plasterboard assists significantly with the overall structural capacity of sheathed panels and this should be incorporated into the relevant design codes.
