An Overview of Studies of the Response of a Typical Steel Light-Gauge Housing System

In recent years, the use of light housing structural solutions made of cold-formed steel (CFS) members is becoming increasingly popular. Among the main advantages of these systems, the lightweight is the one that makes them attractive and competitive in seismic areas if compared to the more traditional solutions. The complex behaviour of cold-formed profiles, of sub-assemblages and of the whole system make difficult to adopt a purely theoretical approach for their design. Therefore, a mixed approach that combines experimental tests and numerical simulations is usually adopted. The University of Trento was involved in a research project aimed to develop an industrialized housing system made of CFS members. With the aim to have a holistic comprehension of the performance of these building systems, a suitable number of experimental tests and numerical simulations were performed ranging from the single component to the entire building. In detail, the local behaviours of the single components (i.e. member, connections, sheathing, and steel deck), the in-plane behaviour of shear walls and of floor systems and finally the response of the entire building were investigated under quasi static and seismic actions. The paper presents an overview of the whole project and of the main findings.