Bracing Cold-Formed Steel Studs

The need to brace cold-formed steel studs to achieve reasonable levels of design efficiency and performance is clear; however, guidance and design requirements have evolved greatly beyond providing two percent of the axial demand. This talk will summarize current guidance and requirements in AISI S100 and AISI S240 for bracing studs. In addition, a summary of research to understand and predict the behavior of studs with sheathing bracing, discrete bracing, and combined (sheathing and discrete) bracing will be summarized. Finally, a proposed approach for rational engineering design of studs with combined bracing will be summarized. This approach is also under consideration for formal adoption in future AISI standards.

Benjamin W. Schafer, Ph.D., P.E.
Johns Hopkins University

Benjamin W. Schafer is the Hackerman Professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering and the director of the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Schafer also serves as the director of the Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium and is active in engineering consulting as a consulting principal at SGH. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and his B.S.E. from the University of Iowa. Professor Schafer serves on AISI, AISC, and ASCE specification committees related to steel structures. He has previously served as chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins, chair of the Structural Stability Research Council, president of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute, and North American editor of the “Journal of Thin-Walled Structures.”