Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Cyclic performance of K-braced cold-formed steel shear walls

with concrete-filled steel- tubular struts
Wang Xingxing ⁎, Wang Wei, Li Youcheng
School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A wall consisting of an internal K-braced cold-formed steel (CFS) shear wall and concrete-filled steel-tubular end
Received 9 March 2020 struts (K-braced RCFS shear wall) is proposed. An experimental investigation on four full-scale specimens under
Received in revised form 30 May 2020 cyclic loading is conducted, based on which a numerical simulation method for analysing the shear performance
Accepted 2 June 2020
of the wall is proposed. The results show that (1) The shear strength and elastic stiffness of a gypsum board
Available online xxxx
sheathed K-braced CFS shear wall can be enhanced significantly by adding concrete-filled steel-tubular struts
Keywords:
at both ends, the shear failure of the wall is not concentrated in the surrounding screw connections and the
CFS shear wall end struts play a second defence role in addition to that of the internal CFS shear wall and the wall exhibits a bet-
Concrete-filled steel-tubular strut ter energy dissipation capacity and ductility after reaching its shear capacity. (2) For a gypsum board sheathed
Seismic performance K-braced RCFS shear wall with the web depth of the concrete-filled steel-tubular strut being 140 mm, the pre-
Cyclic loading test scribed value of the response modification factor R = 3 in AISI is conservative. (3) The proposed numerical sim-
Numerical simulation method ulation method can accurately predict the shear performance of a K-braced RCFS shear wall, and the difference
between the simulation and test results is within 11%.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Cold-formed steel (CFS) structure has the advantages of energy con-
servation, environment protection and high degree of industrialization.
Because of large population, the shortage of land resource, it is of great
significance and more consistent with Chinese national conditions to
develop CFS structure from low-rise buildings to mid-rise dwellings
with 4–6 stories.
In a CFS structure, CFS shear walls usually serve as the main load-
bearing and lateral resistance components. When a CFS shear wall is
in shear, one of the dominant failure modes often manifests as the
shear failure of the surrounding sheathing-to-steel screw connections
of the wall [1–3]. Once the screw connections fail, the “diaphragm ef-
fect” between the steel frame and sheathing will be greatly weakened,
and the shear strength of the wall will be rapidly reduced or even inad-
equate to continue to withstand lateral loads. As a result, the lateral re-
sistance of CFS structures will decrease greatly, which severely affects
the safety of structures in rare earthquakes. Therefore, shear failure con-
centrated on the screw connections in the perimeter of a CFS shear wall
is an adverse failure mode of the wall against lateral loads, especially for
the walls in mid-rise CFS structures. To improve the shear performance
of CFS shear walls, numerous experimental studies on the influences of
sheathing materials, sheathing layers and thicknesses, screw diameters
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wangxingxing1288@126.com (W. Xingxing).
and edge distances on the shear performance of CFS shear walls were
carried out by Mohebbi et al. [4], Hanheng et al. [5], Ruoqiang et al.
[6], Jihong et al. [7] and Karabulut and Soyoz [8], respectively. The re-
sults indicate that the shear strength of CFS shear walls can be improved
by using sheathing with a higher strength, increasing the number and
thickness of the sheathing, and using a reasonable screw diameter and
spacing; however, the failure of the walls are still concentrated on the
shear failure of the surrounding screw connections.
Another adverse failure mode for CFS shear walls against lateral
loads manifests as buckling of compressed chord studs. When the
walls are in shear, the compression buckling at the bottom of the
chord studs generated from the loss of the sheathing constraint will ac-
celerate the bearing failure of the walls, and the walls can lose their
load-bearing capacities, resulting in a construction collapse. Therefore,
the conventional CFS shear wall with coupled C-section chord studs is
obviously not suitable for mid-rise CFS structure. Steel braced frames
incorporating cold-formed steel studs was studied by Celik et al. [9] to
improve the lateral performance of steel frame. Afterwards, Zeynalian
et al. [10] used K-braced elements in CFS shear walls and performed ex-
perimental investigations on the shear performance of K-braced CFS
shear walls. The results indicated that although K-braced CFS shear
walls have relatively high maximum drifts, their strengths are not as
high as those of the strap bracing systems (i.e. CFS shear walls with
X-braced elements) that are currently used. Even so, the test results ob-
tained by Omid et al. [11] showed that the strength and ductility of
K-braced CFS shear walls have an evident improvement by using a

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2020.106249
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2 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
reasonable connection. However, the compression buckling of the chord
studs is still unavoidable, and further study on the shear behaviour of
sheathed K-braced CFS shear walls is needed. Xingxing and Jihong
[12,13] replaced conventional chord studs with concrete-filled steel-
tubular struts. The experimental results indicate that the concrete-
filled steel-tubular struts can avoid compression buckling if and only if
their sectional dimension is large enough, which is limited by the thick-
ness of CFS shear walls; moreover, the screw connections between
sheathing and concrete-filled steel-tubular struts are often sheared off,
resulting in an abrupt reduction in the shear capacity of the walls.
To avoid the abrupt reduction in the lateral resistance and bearing
capacity of CFS structures due to the shear failure of the surrounding
screw connections and the compression buckling of the chord studs in
CFS shear walls under earthquake loading, a wall consisting of an inter-
nal K-braced CFS shear wall and concrete-filled steel-tubular end struts
(K-braced RCFS shear wall), which are bolted together, is proposed, as
shown in Fig. 1. K-braced elements are used to strengthen the connec-
tion and further reduce the relative rotation between the steel frame
and gypsum boards, thereby avoiding the abrupt reduction in the
shear capacity of the wall due to the shear failure of the surrounding
screw connections. The introduction of concrete-filled steel-tubular
struts aims to improve the stability of walls and improve the safety of
CFS structures under rare earthquakes. The K-braced RCFS shear wall
will be used as the primary load-bearing structural components in
mid-rise CFS structure with 4– 6 stories. In this study, the shear behav-
iour of a K-braced RCFS shear wall was investigated by full-scale model
tests. Based on the test results, OpenSees software was used to study the
numerical simulation method of the shear performance of the wall.
2. Experimental programme
2.1. Test specimens
Four full-scale specimens were prepared. The details of each speci-
men are provided in Table 1. Specimens W1 and W2 were designed
using conventional and K-braced steel frames with the same section
specifications, respectively, to investigate the influence of K-braced ele-
ments on the shear behaviour of CFS shear walls. Specimen W3 is a wall
that uses a K-braced steel frame and concrete-filled steel-tubular end
struts, and it was designed to study the shear behaviour of a K-braced
Fig. 1. K-braced RCFS shear wall.
RCFS shear wall. Specimen W4 is a wall that uses a conventional steel
frame and concrete-filled steel-tubular end struts, and it was designed
to study the superiority of the wall using a K-braced steel frame com-
pared with the wall using a conventional steel frame given a uniform
steel consumption per meter with specimen 3, combined with speci-
men W3. Specifically, the thicknesses of the steel members in speci-
mens W3 and W4 are 1.0 mm and 1.2 mm, respectively. Fig. 2 depicts
the configuration details for each specimen.
In Table 1 and Fig. 2, the height of all specimens is taken as the
commonly-used size of the walls in practical CFS structures. The width
of specimens 1 and 2 together with the internal CFS shear wall of spec-
imen 3 is designed as twice width of a gypsum board to match the width
modulus of gypsum board, which is also commonly used for CFS shear
wall specimens. The K-braced elements of specimens W2 and W3
have the same section designation as the studs of the internal CFS
shear walls. Specimen 4 is prepared using commonly-used CFS mem-
bers to form a uniform steel consumption per meter with specimen 3.
The width of the concrete-filled steel-tubular end strut is twice flange
width of a CFS stud, while the depth of the end strut is taken as the
sum of the web depth of a CFS stud and the thicknesses of gypsum
boards on both sides to meet the façade requirement; besides, to ensure
structural safety, the depth of the end strut should not be less than
140 mm [12,13].
Table 2 provides the specifications and the measured material prop-
erties of the CFS members. As shown in Fig. 3, a steel tube was spliced
face-to-face using two CFS studs and 1.0 mm thick steel strips with
two rows of screws at 150 mm along the length first, and then the
tube was filled with fine aggregate concrete to form a concrete-filled
steel-tubular strut. The steel strips were arranged continuously along
the vertical direction of the studs. The width and length of the steel
strip are 10 mm and 3000 mm, respectively. The compressive strength
(fc) of the fine aggregate concrete is 22.8 MPa. The concrete-filled
steel-tubular struts were prefabricated before being installed to the
CFS steel frames. That is, the steel tubes are assembled and filled with
fine aggregate concrete individually; therefore, concreting these steel
tubes is simple and convenient.
2.2. Test apparatus
Fig. 4 shows the overall test apparatus for the specimens. Beam 1
was used to transmit the vertical and horizontal loads to the specimens.
Beam 2 was fixed on the pedestal to simulate a rigid foundation.
Double-row of 14 mm diameter shear bolts and 16 mm diameter anchor
bolts were used to connect each specimen to the two beams, which are
also illustrated in Fig. 2. The hydraulic jack was embedded in a slide rail
to maintain the invariant vertical load position during the test proce-
dure. Moreover, sliding restraint against out-plane deformation was ap-
plied to the specimens on top.
The hydraulic actuator directly provided force measurements for
each specimen. Four horizontal and four vertical displacement trans-
ducers were arranged to measure the overall specimen response, as
depicted in Fig. 5. The vertical transducers D1, D3 and D2, D4 were placed
in pairs at the ends to derive the overturning displacement of the spec-
imens. The horizontal ones D5, D6 and D7, D8 were used to measure the
lateral and sliding displacements of the specimens, respectively.
2.3. Test procedure
The specimens were tested under cyclic loading conditions taking a
vertical load into consideration. The standard value of the vertical load
was evaluated according to a ground wall of a three-story CFS structure.
Specifically, the axial compression loads of the end and internal studs
are 10 kN and 20 kN, respectively [7]. The vertical load was gradually ap-
plied to each specimen first and was maintained at a constant load dur-
ing the test. As shown in Fig. 6(a), each specimen was tested using
force-control mode combined with displacement-control mode with a
 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
Table 1
Details of the specimens.
Specimen Frame configuration Frame description
W1 Conventional CFS frame
W2 K-braced CFS frame
S2 S3 S1
W3 K-braced CFS frame bolted to
concrete-filled steel-tubular struts
(see Figs. 2 and 3)
W4 Conventional CFS frame bolted to
concrete-filled steel-tubular struts
(see Figs. 2 and 3)
Note: The self-drilling screws used in sheathing-to-stud and steel-to-steel connections have a diameter of 4.8 mm.
loading velocity of two to three minutes per level to ensure the suffi-
cient deformation of the specimen. Specifically, before the specimen
yielded, the force-control mode was used; when each specimen reached
its elastic limit displacement Δel (i.e. the displacement corresponding to
the specific turning point of the load-displacement curve), the
displacement-control mode was used until the applied load reduced
to 0.85 Ppeak that is, until the failure limit state occurred [14]. It should
be noted that, during the tests, Δel of each specimen was set to 10 mm
to obtain sufficient hysteretic loops with the loading efficiency under
consideration. Detailed loading procedure of each specimen is depicted
in Fig. 6(b). In addition, while ensuring safety, the loading history of dis-
placement control mode will continue a little bit further after reaching
the point (i.e. 0.85 Ppeak beyond the peak load) to obtain more damage
of the specimens.
3. Experimental results
3.1. Visual observations
3.1.1. Specimen W1
At the beginning, the screws primarily tilted and sunk into the gyp-
sum boards (see Fig. 7a). As the load increased, the sheathing corners
cracked (see Fig. 7b) due to the relatively large internal force in the
screw connections, and the screw holes in both the perimeter and the
vertical joints of the wall became loose, causing a distinct sheathing ro-
tation (see Fig. 7c). When the load continued to increase, the loose
screw holes gave rise to screws being pulled through the face-layer gyp-
sum boards, and the buckling of the compressed chord studs at the bot-
tom occurred (see Fig. 7d) due to the absence of sheathing restraint,
resulting in the decrease of the shear capacity. When the wall was
damaged, shear failure of the sheathing-to-steel screw connections
3
Sheathing assembling
(1) Double-layer 12 mm thick gypsum boards are staggered on both sides
with a fastener spacing of 150 mm.
(2) A gap of 10 mm is left between the frame and gypsum boards to
guarantee loading on the steel members.
(3) 20 mm, 25 mm are used as the edge distances in the fields of tracks
and chords studs, respectively.
(4) Each interior stud has two rows of screws due to the staggered
gypsum boards, and the edge distance is 15 mm.
concentrated mainly in the perimeter and vertical joints of the wall;
moreover, the plastic hinge generated from the compression buckling
of the chord studs accelerated the damage of the wall; therefore, the
screw connections in the perimeter and vertical joints of the wall had
insufficient damage, and less than 80% of the screw connections were
pulled through the gypsum boards. During the sheathing demolition,
it was found that most of the CFS studs were distorted at the bottom
(see Fig. 7e).
3.1.2. Specimen W2
At the preliminary stage of loading, the failure phenomenon of the
wall was basically similar to that of specimen W1, including titling
and sinking of the screws and successive cracks in the sheathing cor-
ners. The difference was that when the wall was damaged, the damage
of the surrounding screw connections was less than those in the interior
studs because the braces in specimen W2 effectively restrained the lat-
eral deformation of the steel frame and strengthened the connection be-
tween the gypsum boards and the frame on both sides of the wall; the
double rows of screws in the interior studs adjacent to the chord stud
(i.e., S3 in Table 1) even showed different damage phenomena, which
manifested as severe strip extrusion failure in the row away from the
braces and unconspicuous deformation in the other row (see Fig. 8).
This indicates that using K-braced elements can effectively avoid the ad-
verse shear failure concentrated in the surrounding screw connections
of the wall. However, compression buckling still existed in the chord
studs because of their low stiffnesses.
3.1.3. Specimen W3
At the beginning, titling and sinking of the screws in the perimeter
and vertical joints of the wall was not obvious because the sheathing ro-
tation was constrained by the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts. When
4 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249

Fig. 2. Configurations of the specimens.

 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249 5

Table 2
Steel framing material properties.

Steel Designation/mm Base Yield Tensile Elastic

framing metal strength strength modulus
component thickness fy/MPa fu/MPa E/GPa
t/mm

C89 89 × 40 × 13 1.0 368.8 469.0 203.0

U91 91 × 50
C140–1 140 × 50 × 13 1.2 367.2 471.9 210.9
U142 142 × 50
C140–2 140 × 50 × 13a 1.5 382.9 485.1 208.5
C190 190 × 50 × 13b 1.5 386.4 488.1 211.9

Note: a, b Face-to-face C140–2 studs and C190 studs were built up to be rectangular steel
tubes, which were used as the end struts of specimens W3 and W4, respectively, after
being filled with fine aggregate concrete.

Fig. 5. Arrangement of the measuring points.

Fig. 3. Concrete-filled steel-tubular strut.
the load increased to a certain value, the sheathing corners cracked, and
the screw connections in the vertical joints were squeezed and gradu-
ally pulled through the gypsum boards, resulting in a gap between the
gypsum boards and the steel frame; therefore, an evident rotation of
the gypsum boards occurred. After the load continued to increase, the
screw connections in the chord studs tilted and gradually sunk because
of the aggravation of the sheathing rotation, and sheathing splitting in
the vicinity of the screw connections in the tracks were observed (see
Fig. 9a). At the end of loading, owing to the bracing effect, most screw
connections in the chord studs were not pulled through (see Fig. 9b)
the gypsum boards, and the “diaphragm effect” still existed between
the gypsum boards and the steel frame at both ends of the wall, while
nearly all the screws in the vertical joints were pulled through; the gyp-
sum boards in the middle of the wall detached from the steel frame (see
Fig. 9c). As a result, the “diaphragm effect” of the internal CFS shear wall
was weakened, and the restraint of the internal shear wall on the lateral
deformation of the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts was reduced, up-
lift (see Fig. 9d) and restoration occurred at the bottom of the end struts
during cyclic loading. When the wall was damaged, there was no obvi-
ous deformation in the steel frame. It can thus be concluded that after
adding concrete-filled steel-tubular struts at both ends of the K-braced
CFS shear wall, in addition to avoiding the adverse shear failure of the
wall concentrated in the surrounding screw connections, the chord
studs were prevented from buckling in compression and the stability
of the wall was thereby guaranteed; furthermore, the internal CFS
shear wall failed prior to the concrete-filled steel-tubular edge struts,
and the edge struts played a secondary role in resisting the applied com-
pression forces in addition to the internal CFS shear wall.
3.1.4. Specimen W4
During the loading process, the damage order and failure modes of
specimen W4 were almost the same as those of specimen W3, including
cracking of the sheathing corners, titling and sinking of the screw

Fig. 4. Test setup.

6 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249

Fig. 6. Loading procedure.

Fig. 7. Failure modes of specimen W1.

connections, and screws successively being pulled through the gypsum
boards; moreover, the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts guaranteed
the stability of the wall at the end of loading. The difference was that
the damage in specimen W4 was shear failure of the screw connections
in the perimeter and vertical joints of the wall since the conventional
steel frame was not replaced with the K-braced steel frame. This indi-
cates that for a CFS shear wall with concrete-filled steel-tubular end
struts, increasing the thickness of the CFS members has little effect on
avoiding the adverse shear failure in the surrounding screw connections
of the wall, while using K-braced elements can obtain an ideal failure
mode without increasing the steel consumption per meter.
3.2. Load-displacement behaviour
The measured displacement on top minus the slip and overturning
displacements is the actual shear displacement of the specimens [7].
Fig. 10 shows the load- displacement curve of each specimen under cy-
clic loading. In the beginning, all specimens were in the elastic stage,
and their hysteresis curves were linear. When the load increased, the
specimens entered the elastic-plastic stage due to the cracks in the
sheathing corners and the titling and sinking of the screw connections,
the shapes of the curves turned from linear to fusi-form, and the corre-
sponding load of each specimen was approximately 40–50% of the peak
 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
Fig. 8. Different failure modes of the screws in stud 3.
load. When the load continued to increase, the compression deforma-
tion of the gypsum boards around screw holes was intensified, the
screw holes were gradually loosened, and pinching appeared in the
Fig. 9. Failure modes of specimen W3.
7
curves due to the opening and closing of the screw holes. After the
load continued to increase, no-load slipping of some screw connections
occurred because of the loose screw holes, and the screws gradually
being pulled through the gypsum boards. Noticeable turning points ap-
peared in the curves, indicating the specimens had yielded, the shape of
the curves changed from a fusi-form to an inverse S-shape, and the cur-
rent load of each specimen was approximately 60% of the peak load.
After the specimens reached their peak loads, an obvious descent
existed in the skeleton curve of each specimen.
The following observations are discussed: (1) Owing to the
strengthening restraint of the braces on the connection between
the steel frame and the gypsum boards, the shear capacity and
non-deformability of specimen W2 are higher than those of speci-
men W1; however, due to the low stiffness of the chord studs, the
two specimens have few hysteresis loops from the time when the
walls yield until reaching their shear capacity; moreover, the shear
capacity of the walls decreases rapidly after compression buckling oc-
curs in the chord studs. (2) The shear capacity and the corresponding
story drift angle (θ) of specimens W3 and W4 are significantly higher
than those of specimens W1 and W2. This is because the plastic
hinge generated from the compression buckling of the chord studs
with a low stiffness accelerated the damage of the specimens,
while at that time, not all screw connections in the perimeter and
vertical joints of the wall were fully deformed; for specimens W3
and W4, the effective restraint of the concrete-filled steel-tubular
struts on the lateral deformation of the internal CFS shear wall guar-
anteed the full development of the deformation of the screw connec-
tions, thereby improving the shear capacity and non-deformability of
the specimens.
8 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
Fig. 10. Load-displacement curves of the specimens.
Fig. 11 shows the parameters (Fp, Fy, Fe, Δp, Δy, Δe and Δu) that char-
acterise the skeleton load-displacement curve of each specimen. Fp and
Δp are the peak load and its corresponding displacement, respectively.
Fy and Δy are the yield strength determined by the general yield
strength method [15] and its corresponding displacement, respectively.
To determine this, the displacement corresponding to the point of inter-
section of the secant line through the load that corresponds to 0.6Fp
with a line of Fp, which is tangent to the skeleton curve, is defined as
the yield displacement, and the load corresponding to the yield dis-
placement is defined as the yield strength. Fe and Δe are the elastic
strength and its corresponding displacement, respectively. Δu is the
Fig. 11. Parameters of the skeleton load-displacement curve.
displacement corresponding to the failure limit (0.85Fp) beyond the
peak load, and μ = Δu/Δy is the ductility coefficient [14].
Table 3 summarizes the test results of the specimens. The average
values in two opposite directions as determined by the skeleton curves
were used. Fig. 12 shows the hysteresis energy dissipation per meter of
each specimen for each drift value. The following conclusions can be
drawn:
(1) Compared with specimen W1, the unit elastic stiffness of speci-
men W2 is significantly enhanced by 33.5% due to the strength-
ening restraint of the braces on the connection between the
steel frame and the gypsum boards. However, as stated in
Section 3.1, due to the low stiffness of the chord studs, the plastic
hinge generated from the compression buckling of the chord
studs accelerated the damage of the wall after the wall entered
the elastic-plastic phase. Therefore, the increase in the shear ca-
pacity and yield strength of specimen W2 is not obvious at ap-
proximately 8%.
(2) The ratios of the shear capacity (Fp), yield strength (Fy) and elas-
tic stiffness per meter (ke) of specimen W3 to those of specimen
W2 are 1.61, 1.28 and 1.84, respectively; where, Fp, Fy and ke take
the values outside the brackets. It can be concluded that, the
shear strength and elastic stiffness of a gypsum board sheathed
K-braced CFS shear wall can be enhanced significantly by adding
concrete-filled steel-tubular struts on both ends of the wall. This
is because the shear capacity of specimen W3 was jointly pro-
vided by the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts and the internal
CFS shear wall; before the specimen reached its shear capacity,
 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249 9

Table 3
Experimental results.

Specimens Fp (kN) Fe (kN) Fy (kN) Δp (mm) Δe (mm) Δy (mm) Δu (mm) μ ke (N/mm×m) E (kJ) R κmax

W1 31.3 12.5 25.2 40.4 6.3 20.2 72.8 3.6 826 20.1 3.2 –
W2 33.7 13.5 27.2 31.6 5.1 18.8 66.2 3.5 1103 26.1 3.4 –
W3 54.3 21.7 34.9 74.5 4.1 21.1 103.4 4.9 2036 97.5 6.2 10.1%
(53.7) (21.5) (34.0) (82.0) (4.5) (22.8) (106.3) (4.7) (1836) (91.8) (5.6)
W4 69.8 27.9 55.2 58.1 7.0 24.2 105.9 4.7 1245 52.0 4.5 –

Notes: The meanings of Fp, Fe, Fy, Δp, Δe, Δy and Δu are identical to those in Fig. 13; μ is the ductility coefficient; ke = Fe/(Δe×L) is the unit elastic stiffness; E is the accumulated energy
dissipation; the meaning of the values in brackets are the numerical simulated results of specimen W3; and κmax is the maximum absolute value of the relative errors between the test
and the simulated results.

the effective restraint of the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts
on the lateral deformation of the internal CFS shear wall guaran-
teed the full development of the deformation of the screw con-
nections. After the shear capacity of specimen W3 was reached,
the undamaged concrete-filled steel-tubular struts continued to
restrain the lateral deformation of the internal CFS shear wall, al-
leviating the strength degradation rate of the specimen, thereby
improving the ductility coefficient by 40% compared with speci-
men W2, which can be derived from the values in the ninth
column; where, the value outside the bracket is taken for
specimen W3.
(3) Specimens W3 and W4 have a uniform steel consumption per
meter. By way of comparison, the unit shear strength of speci-
men W4 (i.e., Fs-W4 = 69.8/3.2 = 21.8 kN/m) is only 4.4% higher
than that of specimen W3 (i.e., Fs-W3 = 54.3/2.6 = 20.9 kN/m),
while the unit elastic stiffness (ke) of specimen W3 is much
higher than that of specimen W4, up to 63.5%. It can be con-
cluded that for a CFS shear wall with concrete-filled steel-
tubular end struts, increasing the thickness of the CFS members
has little effect on improving the shear strength of the wall,
while using K-braced elements can significantly improve the
elastic stiffness of the wall without increasing steel consumption.
(4) As shown in Fig. 12, in the early stage of loading, there is little dif-
ference in the energy dissipation of each specimen. When the lat-
eral displacement increased, the energy dissipation of specimens
W3 and W4 is higher than that of specimens W1 and W2, and the
differences become gradually significant with increasing dis-
placement. This is because the buckling of the compressed C-
section end studs in specimens W1 and W2 caused the walls to
yield prematurely, not all screw connections in the perimeter
and vertical joints of the walls were fully deformed, resulting in
an lower energy dissipation capacity; while the concrete-filled
steel-tubular struts ensured the sufficient screw connections de-
formation and thereby improving the energy dissipation capacity
of the walls; moreover, the friction between the end struts and
their adjacent components is involved in the energy dissipation
of specimens W3 and W4 in addition to screw connections defor-
mation. It should be noted that, due to the K-braced elements
prevented the screw connections in the perimeter of the wall
from adverse shear failure, the accumulated energy dissipation
E of specimen W3 is much higher compared with specimen W4
without K-braced elements, as listed in Table 3.
Strength reductions from the elastic strength demand to real inelas-
tic structural strength are taken into account using the reduction factors,
R. The response modification factor R is commonly expressed in terms of
its two main components: ductility reduction factor (Rd) and structural
over-strength factor (Ω0). The R factor is defined as:
R ¼ Rd  Ω 0 ð1Þ
The components of the response modification factor are defined
using Fig. 13, as:
Rd ¼ V e =V y , Ω0 ¼ V y =V s ð2Þ
The R factor can then be regenerated as:



R ¼ Rd  Ω0 ¼ V e =V y  V y =V s ¼ V e =V s ð3Þ
In Fig. 13 and Eqs. (1)–(3), Ve is the maximum shear strength of the
wall if it was to remain in the elastic range, which is calculated based on
the concept of equal energy as recommended by FEMA 451 [16]; for this
purpose, the area below the elastic response and the idealized response

Fig. 12. Energy dissipation of the specimens for each drift value. Fig. 13. The components of the response modification factor R.
10 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
are assumed to be equal (i.e. AreaABC = AreaADEF) as shown in Fig. 13,
where line AB goes through zero and the strength that corresponds to
0.6Vy [17]; De is the displacement that corresponds to Ve; Vy corresponds
to the idealized yield response of the wall, which is determined using an
iterative graphical method that balances the size of the areas above and
below of the curve; Dy is the displacement that corresponds to Vy; Vt
corresponds to the wall's peak strength, which is taken as the value of
the second column in Table 3; Dt is the displacement that corresponds
to Vt; Vs corresponds to the first “significant yield” strength of the wall
and its corresponding displacement, which is approximately taken as
40% of the peak shear strength of the wall according to the tested hys-
teretic curves (see Fig. 10); Ds is the displacement that corresponds
to Vs.
It can be concluded from Table 3 that, for CFS shear walls
sheathed with gypsum boards and having no concrete-filled steel-
tubular end strut (i.e., specimens W1 and W2), the response modifi-
cation factors R are close to the prescribed value of R = 3 in AISI
[18–20], while for the CFS shear walls sheathed with gypsum boards
and having concrete-filled steel-tubular end struts, especially for K-
braced RCFS shear walls, the prescribed value of R = 3 seemed to
be conservative.
4. Computational model of the K-braced RCFS shear wall
4.1. Modelling method
The numerical simulation model of the K-braced RCFS shear wall
was established based on an extension of the fastener-based computa-
tional model proposed by Buonopane et al. [21] using OpenSees struc-
tural analysis software [22]. The detailed modelling process is
described as follows:
(1) Displacement-based beam elements were used to model the
frames. Each member was subdivided by nodes according to
the screw connection locations. Appropriate cross-sectional
properties were assigned to the members. Given the integrity
of the steel tube and its internal concrete during the tests, the
concrete-filled steel-tubular strut was defined as a composite
section disregarding axial deformation, and its cross-sectional
properties were determined based on the principle of equivalent
flexural rigidity [12]. Specifically, the equivalent sectional mo-
ment of inertia of the end strut Ieq can be calculated by Eq. (4),
Fig. 14. Computational model of the K-braced RCFS shear wall.
and it will be taken as the elastic input parameter of the
uniaxialMaterial.
E 1 I 1 þ E2 I 2
Ieq ¼ ð4Þ
E1
Where, E1, E2, I1, I2 are the elasticity modulus and the sectional mo-
ments of inertia of steel tube and its internal concrete, respectively.
(2) As shown in Fig. 14(a), RigidDiaphragm was used to model the
gypsum boards disregarding the joints, and the rigid body was
subdivided by subordinate nodes at screw connection locations
and a master node in the centre. The subordinate nodes were
controlled by the master node so that the rigid body had transla-
tion and rotation degrees of freedom only. Zero-length elements
1, 2 and 3 were used to simulate the sheathing-to-stud connec-
tions, the connections between the concrete-filled steel-tubular
struts and the chord studs and track-to-stud connections, respec-
tively.
(3) According to the assumption that the load-displacement
curves of the sheathing-to-stud connections are symmetrical
in forward and backward loading, only eight parameters for
forward loading were defined. The input parameters for the
sheathing-to-stud connections are listed in Table 4 based on
the measured results in reference [23]. In view of the slipping
displacement between the concrete-filled steel-tubular strut
and the chord stud being negligible, the translation degrees
of freedom of the two nodes in each zero-length element 2
are coupled while the rotation degrees of freedom are re-
leased. Zero-length element 3 uses the same processing
methods as Zero-length element 2.
(4) For the nodes on the top track, after constraining the translation
degrees of freedom perpendicular to XY plane, their translation
degrees of freedom were coupled along the X direction to simu-
late beam 1. For the nodes on the bottom track, their translation
degrees of freedom were constrained to simulate the boundary
constraints between each specimen and beam 2. To guarantee
the gypsum boards display in-plane translation and rotation,
only the translation degrees of freedom of the rigid body along
the X and Y directions and in-plane rotation degree of freedom
were released.
 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249 11

Table 4
The input parameters of the sheathing-to-stud connections.

Projects de/mm dy/mm dm/mm du/mm fe/N fy/N fm/N fu/N

Envelope parameters Interior stud 0.78 3.24 7.75 25.0 509 1050 1273 50
tracks 1.10 4.96 11.76 25.0 570 1181 1411 50
Chord stud 1.04 4.29 7.53 35.0 847 1568 1760 50
Hysteretic parameters rDispP rForceP uForceP βK1,2/βK3,4/βKlimit βD1,2/βD3,4/βDlimit βF1,2/βF3,4/βFlimit
0.5 0.3 0.1 0.5/1.5/0.1 0.45/1.5/0.1 0.0/0.0/0.0

Note: fe, de, fy, dy, fm, dm, fu and du are the elastic strength, yield strength, peak strength, failure strength and their relative deformation, respectively; rDispP, rForceP and uForceP are the
unloading-reloading parameters; βK1,2, βK3,4, βKlimit, βD1,2, βD3,4, βDlimit, βF1,2, βF3,4 and βFlimit are the damage factors and their corresponding limit indexes that correspond to the loading
and unloading stiffness and strength of the connections, respectively [22].

(5) Due to the effective connection between the concrete-filled
steel-tubular struts and beam 2 by hold downs, all degrees of
freedom of the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts were
constrained at the bottom except for the translational degree of
freedom in the Y-direction, which was released by setting an
axial spring along the Y-direction (i.e. zero-length element
4) to consider the possible looseness of the hold-downs. Given
that the axial stiffness of the spring will not be nonlinear until
each specimen reaches its shear capacity, then given the shear
capacity Fp and its corresponding Δa of each specimen, the axial
stiffness of the spring (kSpring) can be determined by Eq. (5) [24].
errors within 11%, verifying the validity and rationality of the numerical
simulation model.
5. Conclusions
A wall consisting of an interior K-braced CFS shear wall and
concrete-filled steel-tubular end struts (K-braced RCFS shear wall)
was proposed in this study. An experimental investigation of four full-
scale specimens under cyclic loading was described. Based on the exper-
imental results, OpenSees software was used to study the numerical
simulation method for the shear performance of the wall.
The conclusions based on the results of this study are summarized as
follows:

kSpring ¼ F p H=ðL  Δa Þ ð5Þ

where H and L are the height and the length of each specimen,
respectively.
4.2. Model verifications
After establishing the numerical model of specimen W3, cyclic load-
ing mode that is the same as that used in the test as stated in Section 2.3
was applied to the model until the displacement reached a value at
which the specimen was damaged.
Fig. 15 shows the hysteretic curve comparison of specimen W3 sub-
jected to cyclic loading. It is observed that the simulation result agrees
well with the test result. The simulation curve fully reflects the typical
hysteretic features of the specimen, including nonlinearity, pinching,
strength and stiffness degradation. Table 3 and Fig. 12 show the com-
parisons of the simulation and test results. It can be concluded that
the characteristic values of the skeleton curve, the elastic shear stiffness
and the energy dissipation are very close to the test results with relative
(1) The K-braced RCFS shear wall sheathed with gypsum boards can
not only avoid the adverse shear failure of the wall concentrated
in the surrounding screw connections but also prevent the chord
studs from buckling in compression, guaranteeing the stability of
the wall; furthermore, the concrete-filled steel-tubular struts
play a second defence role in addition to that of the internal
CFS shear wall.
(2) For a gypsum board sheathed K-braced RCFS shear wall with the
web depth of the concrete-filled steel-tubular strut being
140 mm, the end struts interact with the internal CFS shear
wall when the wall is in shear, and the shear capacity, yield
strength and unit elastic stiffness of the wall are 61%, 28% and
84% higher than those of the wall without end struts. Moreover,
the K-braced RCFS shear wall exhibits a better energy dissipation
capacity and ductility after reaching its shear capacity.
(3) For a gypsum board sheathed CFS shear wall with concrete-filled
steel-tubular end struts, enlarging the web depth of the end strut
from 140 mm to 190 mm and increasing the thickness of the CFS
members from 1.0 mm to 1.2 mm have little effect on improving
the shear strength and avoiding the adverse shear failure of the
wall concentrated in surrounding screw connections, while
adding K-braced elements in the CFS frame can improve the elas-
tic stiffness of the wall significantly and obtain an ideal failure
mode without increasing steel consumption per meter. In addi-
tion, the response modification factor is conservative compared
with the prescribed value of R = 3 in AISI, especially for that of
the K-braced RCFS shear wall.
(4) The shear performance of the K-braced RCFS shear wall can be ef-
fectively predicted by the proposed numerical simulation
method. The relative error between the simulation and test
results is within 11%.

Author statement

I have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of

the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the
Fig. 15. Comparison of the load-displacement curves. work; AND.
12 W. Xingxing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 173 (2020) 106249
I have drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellec-
tual content; AND I have approved the final version to be published;
AND.
I agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that
questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are
appropriately investigated and resolved.
All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work re-
ported in the manuscript, including those who provided editing and
writing assistance but who are not authors, are named in the Acknowl-
edgments section of the manuscript and have given their written per-
mission to be named.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to the
enclosed manuscript entitled “Cyclic performance of K-braced cold-
formed steel shear walls with concrete-filled steel- tubular struts”.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was supported by the National Nat-
ural Science Foundations of China (51708258 and 51708257) and the
Science Foundation of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
(1122931702).
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