The CFS-NHERI Wall-Line Test Program advanced understanding of the lateral behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS)-framed wall-lines with typical design details specified for mid- and high-rise CFS buildings. Each specimen combined shear walls placed in-line with gravity framing or window opening, with or without architectural finishes, and varying tie-down details. Full-scale testing was conducted at the NHERI outdoor shake table (LHPOST) and UCSD Structural Engineering Powell Labs.
The program enabled:
- Capturing cyclic strength and stiffness degradation for CFS wall-lines under seismic demands.
- Calibrating numerical models for developing building-level seismic analyses.
Visit the program website for media, technical papers and reports produced during the CFS-NHERI wall-line experiments.
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) CMMI Awards #1663569 and #1663348, Collaborative Research: Seismic Resiliency of Repetitively Framed Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Buildings.
Publications
[Journal Articles]
[Conference Papers]
[Presentations & Posters]
[Technical Reports]
[Datasets]
[Theses]
Journal Articles
(J8)
(J7)
(2025). Modeling Cold-formed Steel Framed Wall-lines with Steel Sheet Sheathed Shear Walls.
Thin-Walled Structures, 214, 113408
(J5)
(2024). Physical Damage-Hysteretic Response Correlation for Steel Sheet Sheathed Cold-formed Steel-framed Wall-lines.
Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, 53(3), 1195-1215
(J4)
(2022). Steel Sheet Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Framed In-line Wall Systems. II: Impact of Nonstructural Detailing.
ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 148(12), 04022194
(J3)
(2022). Steel Sheet Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Framed In-line Wall Systems. I: Impact of Structural Detailing.
ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 148(12), 04022193
Conference Papers
(C9)
(2022, October). Effects of Modeling Decisions on the Lateral Performance of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Walls.
Proceedings of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Colloquium.
(C8)
(2022, July). Correlating fastener damage to hysteretic response and performance levels in steel sheet sheathed CFS wall-lines.
Proceedings of the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Salt Lake City, UT.
(C7)
(2022, July). Impact of detailing on the lateral performance of cold-formed steel framed walls.
Proceedings of the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Salt Lake City, UT.
(C6)
(2020, October). Lateral Response of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Steel Sheathed In-line Wall Systems Detailed for Mid-Rise Buildings.
Proceedings of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Colloquium.
(C4)
(2020, April). Seismic Performance of Symmetric Unfinished CFS In-Line Wall Systems.
In Structures Congress 2020 (pp. 629-642). Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers.
Presentations & Posters
(P5)
(2021, June). Seismic Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Steel Sheathed Wall Systems Detailed for Multi-story Buildings.
Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Summer Symposium.
(P4)
(2021, June). Test Protocol Development and Adaptive Motion Scaling Strategies for Shake Table Testing.
Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Summer Symposium.
(P3)
(2020, May). Lateral Response of Cold-formed Steel Framed Steel Sheathed In-line Wall Systems Detailed For Mid-rise Buildings.
Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Summer Symposium.
(P2)
(2020, March). Material, Component, and System Level Experimental Efforts within CFS NHERI.
2020 National Earthquake Conference, San Diego, CA.
Technical Reports
(R3)
(2024). Adaptive Motion Scaling Strategies for Seismic Performance Assessment in Shake Table Testing: Application to CFS-NHERI Wall-Line Tests.
Structural Systems Research Report SSRP-24/02, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
(R2)
(2022). Lateral Response of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Steel Sheathed In-line Wall Systems Detailed for Mid-Rise Buildings.
Part II: Quasi-Static Test Phase. Structural Systems Research Report SSRP-19/06, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
(R1)
(2021). Lateral Response of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Steel Sheathed In-line Wall Systems Detailed for Mid-Rise Buildings.
Part I: Shake Table Test Phase. Structural Systems Research Report SSRP-19/05, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Datasets
(D3)
(2022). Wall Line Tests: Phase 2 - Quasi-Static Tests.
In CFS-NHERI: Seismic Resiliency of Repetitively Framed Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Buildings. DesignSafe-CI.
(D2)
(2021). Wall Line Tests: Phase 1 - Shake Table Tests.
In CFS-NHERI: Seismic Resiliency of Repetitively Framed Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Buildings. DesignSafe-CI.
(D1)
(2021). Cyclic Experiments on Isolated Steel Sheet Connections for CFS Framed Steel Sheet Sheathed Shear Walls.
In CFS-NHERI: Seismic Resiliency of Repetitively Framed Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Buildings. DesignSafe-CI.
Theses
(T2)
(2023). Seismic Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel-Framed Wall-Line Systems in Mid-Rise Buildings.
Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
