Seismic Behaviour of Residential Steel Buildings Made of Cold-Formed Steel Members

The use of cold-formed steel (CFS) members enabled, in recent years, the development of a new light constructional solution for residential buildings. These structures combine rapidity and simplicity of erection with a good structural performance. In addition, their lightness makes them very attractive for seismic areas. The steel-frame made of CFS members is sheathed with panels of various materials (i.e. steel, OSB, gypsum), making the building an assemblage of walls and floors components. In particular, the walls provide the vertical bracing system, bearing vertical and horizontal loads from the floors to the foundation. The University of Trento started a project focusing on the development of such an industrialized cold formed steel housing system. The evaluation of the seismic performance of this new solution is the main goal of the project. At this aim, two archetype building models were developed and analysed through eigen analysis, push-over analysis, and time-history analysis. In this paper, the main results of the study are presented and discussed.