Combined axial and flexural strength of profiled composite walls

Abstract

Profiled composite walls are composed of cold-formed profiled steel sheeting which serves as permanent form-work for a reinforced concrete wall. This form of wall construction can provide many benefits when being used in place of infill panels in steel-framed low-rise and multi-storey buildings. In addition to this, these walls can be used in the retrofitting and rehabilitation of existing reinforced concrete or steel structures to increase the lateral stiffness and strength of a building. Strength is of major importance to the successful application of such members and this paper considers an extensive experimental programme undertaken on walls subjected to combined bending and compression. The tests revealed that due to the thin-walled nature of the sheeting, local buckling was significant. These experiments and independent tests were then used successfully to calibrate a numerical model which incorporated the effects of local buckling. Furthermore, a parametric study was undertaken to consider the effects of various international profiles and the effects of local buckling were again found to be the most significant parameter.