Construction is underway of a full-scale 10-story cold-formed steel (CFS) framed building known as CFS10, the capstone to a series of CFS projects organized under the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) network. CFS10 is part of the CFS-NHERI project, a multi-university, multi-industry collaborative funded principally by the National Science Foundation.
CFS10 builds on the success of the prior 2-story (CFS-NEES) and 6-story (CFS-HUD) system-level NHERI projects and pushes the boundaries of CFS framed construction.
The Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA) is a CFS10 institutional partner. Several SFIA members are industry partners on the CFS10 project.
Fire and seismic testing will be conducted at the NHERI 6-DOF Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table facility at the University of California, San Diego.
First Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) Track Laid
The tests will be conducted at the NHERI 6-DOF Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table (LHPOST6) facility at the University of California, San Diego.
The test building will exceed current ASCE 7 height limits and incorporate a variety of construction techniques, including stick-framing, panelization and modular construction, all within a single structure.
The foundation system, which consists of thick steel transfer plates post-tensioned and shear connected to the shake table platen was installed in September 2024. Subsequently, the first CFS track was laid and a shake table tuning procedure was conducted.
This “bare table” ground motion iteration process involves converging on a suite of more than 30 varied candidate test motions. Many of the test motions are scaled above Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCER) risk-targets and are available for playback during the test program.
The earthquake test motions include recordings from the:
- 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
- 1994 Northridge Earthquake
- 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake (Taiwan)
- 1999 Kocaeli (Turkey) Earthquake
- 2010 Darfield (New Zealand)
- 2023 Kahramananmaras and Elbistan (Turkey) Earthquakes
Video from one test iteration shows 130% of the MCER-scaled Düzce motion from the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey.
Follow CFS10 Construction Progress
Construction of the CFS10 building, led by Clark Construction, began in October 2024 with the lead framing team from the Raymond Group installing the initial vertical studs and walls. The first story is being stick-framed on-site. Wall and floor panels are being prefabricated off-site by Standard Drywall Inc. at their Tecate, Mexico, facility.
The first story of the structure was stick-framed on-site with cold-formed steel (CFS) framing.
There are several ways to follow the construction progress. The CFS10 team will distribute regular newsletters and social media updates. Additionally, the LHPOST6 facility offers a live webcam, allowing viewers to monitor daily progress.
CFS10 is positioned to yield valuable insights that will benefit not only CFS-framed systems, but also all structural systems. It will contribute to advancements in design standards such as ASCE 7, AISI S400, and construction handbooks.
The principal investigators for CFS10 include Tara Hutchinson at the University of California at San Diego, Ben Schafer at Johns Hopkins University, Kara Peterman at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Richard Emberley at California Polytechnic State University.
Additional Resources
- NHERI Tallwood, Built with Steel Studs and Connectors, Was Earthquake Simulator Tested
- Recent Studies Confirm the Durability and Seismic Performance of Cold-Formed Steel Sheathing
- Shaked and Baked But Still Standing