CFS strap braced stud walls: behaviour factor evaluation according to FEMA P695 methodology

The study presented herein is centred around the behaviour factor evaluation of cold-formed steel strap braced stud walls following the methodology of FEMA P695. A set of fourteen archetypes, are designed with an initial assumption of behaviour factor and following the capacity design ap-proach. Numerical models possessing the ability to simulate the non-linear response of archetype buildings are developed and analysed using non-linear static and dynamic analysis procedures. Performance of archetypes is then evaluated by measuring their collapse fragility against the per-formance criterions of FEMA P695. Based on results, it is concluded that the design method used in this study and a behaviour factor (q) of 2.5 are appropriate for CFS strap-braced stud walls.