Estudo da resistência e rigidez lateral de painéis de cisalhamento do sistema construtivo light-steel framing

Abstract

Due to the increasing cost of construction labor and the housing deficit in Brazil, Light-Steel Framing (LSF) systems has been shown, as in many countries, to be a more rational and industrialized option for the construction of short and mid-rise buildings. Conventional design methods not properly consider the diaphragm effect, obtained by the confinement of the studs through the sheathing board, which are usually plasterboard, OSB, plywood or cement board. In this context, this work presents a numerical study on the behavior and resistance of LSF shear walls by the Finite Element (FE) method, using the Abaqus/CAE software. Shear walls are important components of LSF systems since they are responsible for transferring the lateral loading applied to the structural system to its foundation and stiffening the structural system against excessive lateral displacement. The lateral displacement in a shear wall is mainly due to: (i) panel bending, (ii) panel overturning, (iii) panel shearing, and (iv) local deformation at the stud-to-sheathing connection region. Recent studies have shown that the local deformation at stud-to-sheathing connection region and, therefore, connection stiffness has a highly non-linear behavior. Thus, the FE models developed in this paper not only considers material and geometric non-linearity, but it also simulates the local deformation at the stud-to-sheathing connection region. A simplified model based on equivalent diagonals, for practical use is also presented in order to allow modeling of the structure using only beam elements. This simplified model can make use of results obtained by the methodology of AISI S213 (AISI, 2007) or of the finite element model. With this study, it was concluded that the finite element model proposed showed consistent results compared to those obtained from experimental work and that the adequate modeling of the connections is important for the success on the simulation of these panels. In addition, the diagonals equivalent model allows the consideration of strength and stiffness of the shear walls in a simplified and efficient way, avoiding the complete modeling of the panel.