3D FEA of Load-bearing Cold-formed Steel Wall Systems with Web-perforated Studs Subjected to Standard Fire

Presented in this paper is a study using finite element (FE) analysis to investigate the thermal and structural performance of CFS load-bearing walls with C-shape studs with web perforations subjected to standard fire. Sequentially coupled 3D FE thermal-stress analysis is carried out in which the heat transfer analysis is conducted to obtain the temperature distribution of an entire CFS wall. In the subsequent structural analysis, a CFS wall frame rather than a single stud is modeled to achieve system-level structural responses. The axial force at the bottom end of the stud is used to predict the failure of the wall. The finite element analysis (FEA) results are compared with that from two full-scale fire tests.