This research thread develops and validates numerical models that capture the nonlinear behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) buildings. The different approaches employ zero-length OpenSees elements with calibrated pinching4 material behavior, rigid or discretized diaphragm formulations. Calibration of components is based on data from CFS-NHERI wall-line, CFS-HUD and CFS-NHERI shake-table tests among other sources. backbone curves and degrading hysteresis rules The effort focuses on:
- Translating full-scale test observations into numerical model of buildings explicitly considering shear walls, gravity walls, and different tie-down details.
- Enabling performance-based design through analyses using service-level and MCE-level input motions to collapse assessment.
Reusable modular scripts support engineers designing next-generation CFS structures.
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
(J8)
(J7)
(2025). Modeling Cold-formed Steel Framed Wall-lines with Steel Sheet Sheathed Shear Walls.
Thin-Walled Structures, 214, 113408
(J6)
(2025). Practice-oriented Numerical Model for Seismic Response of Cold-formed Steel-framed Mid-rise Buildings.
Engineering Structures, 319, 118833
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)
(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)
(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)
(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.
(C13)
(2024, July). Pre-test Numerical Modeling of the CFS-NHERI 10-Story Capstone Building.
18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Milan, Italy.
(C10)
(2022, October). Seismic Analysis of the 10-Story CFS-NHERI Building.
Proceedings of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Colloquium.
(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.
(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.
(C2)
(2018, November). Finite Element Modeling and Validation of Steel Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Framed Shear Walls.
CCFSS Proceedings of International Specialty Conference on Cold-Formed Steel Structures. 5, St. Louis, MO.
Presentations & Posters
(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.
(P6)
(2022, May). Finite Element Modeling and Validation of the CFS-HUD 6-story Test Building.
Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium Summer Symposium.
(P1)
(2020, March). Simulation of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Shear Walls for Buildings: Efforts within CFS-NHERI.
2020 National Earthquake Conference, San Diego, CA.
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.
