Constructing residential houses with cold-formed steel in Australia dates back to the 1940’s when there was a shortage of timber for use in the industry. Subsequently, this led to the formation of the National Association of Steel-Framed Housing (NASH) in 1982 with the objective of promoting the use of cold-formed steel in the construction industry, in particular for application to construction of low-rise residential houses. Over the last few decades, NASH has made significant progress in promoting steel and has led to the inclusion of steel-framed housing in the BCA and the development of a standard on residential and low-rise steel framing. Conventional detached housing is the largest single form of residential construction in Australia with approximately 120,000 built in 2015 (ABS, 2015). Therefore, the safety, durability, performance and long-term low operational costs over the 50-year design life of a typical residential house are of significance. Constructed residential houses satisfying these requirements would not only translate to significant savings to homeowners personally but also to the nation. This paper discusses the benefits of using cold-formed steel for constructing low-rise residential structures. Based on a full-scale experimental study that was undertaken to assess the overall performance of a brick veneer steel-framed structure, the performance-based requirements of residential houses built of cold-formed steel framing are evaluated and discussed
Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Timber Composite Beams Reinforced by Cold Formed Steel Sheets
