Experimental study of non-load bearing light gauge steel framed walls in fire

Light gauge Steel Framed (LSF) wall panels are essential components in the construction of residential and commercial buildings. They are used as load bearing and non-load bearing walls in low and mid-rise buildings. During fire events, LSF wall lining material acts as a thermal barrier against fire propagation through the wall and protects the thin-walled steel studs from higher temperatures. Many detailed studies have been conducted to investigate the thermal and structural behaviour of gypsum plasterboard lined load bearing LSF walls exposed to fire conditions. However, such studies are limited for non-load bearing LSF walls. The behavioural characteristics of non-load bearing LSF walls are different from those of load bearing walls with only insulation or integrity failures governing their fire design. Small-scale non-load bearing wall fire tests do not simulate the actual fire behaviour, rather they only provide comparative results for tests conducted under identical conditions. This paper presents the details of a detailed experimental study conducted on the fire performance of 3 m high non-load bearing LSF walls, and the results. Full-scale standard fire tests were conducted and the effects of gypsum plasterboard thickness, wall configurations and noggings on the fire performance of non-load bearing walls were quantified. Fire test results were compared based on the measured stud and gypsum plasterboard temperatures. This paper has provided very useful fire test data for use in the fire design of non-load bearing LSF walls, which can also be used in developing advanced thermal finite element models and their calibration.