Title : THE EFFECT OF CELLULAR CONCRETE CONFINEMENT ON THE STRUCTURAL CAPACITY OF THE INNOVATIVE LGS WALL SYSTEM
Authors : Dr. Rishi Gupta
Publication : 2013
Volume :
Pages : 6-Jan
Price : 250
Abstract : The author has previously outlined the applications of the innovative light gauge steel wall system that utilizes steel studs to form an interconnected steel frame system (Gupta, 2011). In a recently completed follow-up study, the effect of using light weight cellular concrete as an in-fill and finish material was investigated on the structural strength of these steel studs. Scaled down version of the studs (5' high) were constructed and confined using three different types of light weight concrete mixes containing 50% fly-ash. The steel studs confined by Cellular Light weight Concrete (CLC) were axially loaded and their performance was compared to the load carrying capacity of the unconfined studs alone. Even very low strength light weight concrete (~3MPa) was very effective in confining the steel studs and resulted in a significant increase in the axial load carrying capacity of the steel studs. Restrained plastic shrinkage cracking potential of the CLC mixes was also evaluated and these results are presented in this paper. FEM modeling was used to determine areas of stress concentrations and to further help in product development of the LGS sections.