The cold-formed steel framed shear wall sheathed with steel sheets (CFS-SSSW) is a code approved lateral force resisting system for light-framed buildings. The current design approach for cold-formed steel shear walls in U.S. is based on full-scale tests. The AISI Lateral Design Standard provides nominal shear strength for limited wall configurations. This paper presents an analytical design method - the Effective Strip Method for predicting the nominal strength of CFS-SSSWs for both wind and seismic design. The proposed design approach is based on a tension field action model of the sheathing with additional consideration of the sheathing fastener strength, the fastener spacing, the wall aspect ratio, and the material properties. A total of 142 full scale tests are used to verify the proposed design method and the supporting design equations. It shows that the proposed method has a good agreement with the test results. The Effective Strip Method is an alternate approach to determine the nominal strength of CFS-SSSWs without conducting full-scale shear wall tests.
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