Super Stud Building Products has donated cold-formed steel framing system materials for a study being conducted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The study explores the structural response of cold-formed steel stud assemblies (i.e., stud and track) with partial bearing conditions. Dr. Kara Peterman and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will be leading the study which will be conducted throughout the summer. Peterman, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was recently recognized for her work with cold-formed steel framing, having won the prominent 2018 Norman Medal, the highest honor granted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
The theory behind the study suggests that wall framing with partial bearing conditions (i.e., not fully bearing on a concrete slab) may result in reduced axial capacities: for both the wall and the slab. The behavior of structural systems on concrete slabs due to cold-formed steel member instabilities is not well documented or understood at this time, and currently cold-formed steel design specifications provide little guidance. Much data exists on the performance of axially-compressed studs and stud assemblies, but in previous work, the concrete slabs are assumed to provide rigid uniform support resulting in a uniform stress distribution on the stud end.