The program involved testing of a full-scale 10-story cold-formed steel (CFS)-framed building subject to earthquake and fire hazard scenarios. Built on the NHERI 6-DOF Large High Performance Outdoor Shake Table (LHPOST6), the specimen exceeded ASCE 7-22 height limits, integrated several nonstructural components, and employed modular and panelized construction methods.
The program enabled:
- Validating analytical models for tall CFS building under seismic shaking
- Quantifying damage for nonstructural elements such as suspended ceilings, resilient stairs, fire sprinkler and gas piping systems, windows and doors, and roof-mounted mechanical equipment.
Explore the linked program website for technical publications and media from the ambitious CFS10 experimental program.
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
(J11)
(J10)
(J9)
Conference Papers
(C29)
(2026, September). Pre-Test Evaluation of Ground Motion Sequence Effects on a Ten-Story Cold-Formed Steel Framed Structure.
Proceedings of the 11th European Scientific Conference on Steel and Composite Structures (Eurosteel 2026), Cracow, Poland.
(In Preparation)
(C28)
(2026, September). FEMA P-58 Assessment of a 10-story Shake Table Tested Cold-formed Steel Building.
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Behaviour of Steel Structures in Seismic Areas (STESSA), New Delhi, India.
(In Preparation)
(C27)
(2026, July). Application of 360 Degree Imaging and Construction Progress Documentation Platforms in Large-scale Experiments: a CFS10 Case Study.
Proceedings of the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Portland, OR.
(In Review)
(C25)
(2026, July). Performance of Continuous Tie-Rod Systems within a 10-Story Cold-Formed Steel Shake Table Tested Building.
Proceedings of the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Portland, OR.
(In Review)
(C24)
(2026, July). Pre-Test Assessment of a Ten-Story Cold-Formed Steel-framed Building under MCEᵣ-Level Ground Motions.
Proceedings of the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Portland, OR.
(In Review)
(C23)
(2026, May). Physical Damage - Measured Response Correlation for Nonstructural Components Tested under Multihazard (Earthquake and Fire) Demands in the CFS10 Building.
In Structures Congress 2026. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers.
(In Review)
(C22)
(2026, May). Overview of the CFS10 Program: Full-scale Shake Table (Earthquake and Fire) Testing of a 10-Story Cold-Formed Steel Building.
In Structures Congress 2026. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers.
(In Review)
(C21)
(2026, March). Advancing use of Cold-formed Steel Framing Systems for Mid-Rise Residential Construction in Seismic Zones via Full-Scale Shake Table Testing.
Proceedings of the 8th Residential Building Design & Construction Conference, Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, State College, PA.
(Accepted)
(C20)
(2026, March). Investigating Construction Methods in a Landmark 10-story Cold-Formed Steel Residential Building Specimen Shake Table Test Program.
Proceedings of the 8th Residential Building Design & Construction Conference, Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, State College, PA.
(Accepted)
(C19)
(2026, March). Pre-Test High-Fidelity Numerical Modeling of a Ten-Story Cold-Formed Steel Framed Building under Seismic Loading.
Proceedings of the 8th Residential Building Design & Construction Conference, Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, State College, PA.
(Accepted)
(C18)
(2026, March). Interaction of Suspended Ceilings and Pressurized Piping in a Full-scale 10-story Cold-formed Steel Building Shake Table Program.
Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Seismic Performance of Non-Structural Elements (SPONSE), Yokohama, Japan.
(Accepted)
(C16)
(2026, January). Evolution of Modal Characteristics and Model Comparison for a 10-Story Cold-Formed Steel Framed Building under Seismic Excitation.
Proceedings of the International Modal Analysis Conference (IMAC) XLIV, Palm Springs, CA.
(Accepted)
(C15)
(2025, April). Stability assumptions in numerical modeling of cold-formed steel-framed buildings under seismic loading.
Proceedings of the Annual Stability Conference Structural Stability Research Council 2025, Louisville, KY.
(C14)
(2024, July). CFS-NHERI 10-Story Building Shake Table Test Specimen: Design Updates.
18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Milan, Italy.
(C13)
(2024, July). Pre-test Numerical Modeling of the CFS-NHERI 10-Story Capstone Building.
18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Milan, Italy.
(C12)
(2024, July). Ground Motion Selection and Scaling Considerations for the CFS-NHERI Capstone 10-Story Building Specimen.
18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Milan, Italy.
(C11)
(2022, October). Structural Design Narrative of the CFS-NHERI 10-story Test Building for Multi-dimensional Shake Table Testing.
Proceedings of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Colloquium.
(C10)
(2022, October). Seismic Analysis of the 10-Story CFS-NHERI Building.
Proceedings of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Colloquium.
Presentations & Posters
(P9)
(2025, January). CFS10: Full-scale Shake Table (Earthquake and Fire) Test Program on a 10-story Cold-formed Steel Building.
2025 SEAOC Convention, San Diego, CA.
(P8)
(2024, May). Innovations in Cold-Formed Steel Design and Construction: Towards Tall, Fast, Dry, Multi-hazard Resilience.
Natural Hazards Research Summit 2024, College Park, MD.
(P7)
(2023, April). Numerical Investigation of the Response of a Mid-rise Cold-Formed Steel Building under the Türkiye/Syria Earthquake Sequence Scenario.
2023 EERI Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
