Experimental study of the fire resistance of walls and floors constructed with steel studs and steel joists

Steel‐framed houses using light‐gauge steel as a structural member have been developed and constructed since the early 2000s as a new construction pattern in the low‐rise construction market in Korea. Generally, the steel frames consist of two major load‐carrying elements such as load‐bearing wall and floor construction made up of approximately 1.0‐mm cold‐formed light‐gauge steel and light‐weight boards. Therefore, the steel frames are very simple to construct and make the construction period shorter than the ordinary construction type or concrete‐based construction. In Korea, regardless of the construction material types, the building regulation requires 1‐h fire rating for apartment buildings of four stories or under. To meet the fire resistance, new models of load‐bearing wall and floor should be developed. From the fire test results, two layer gypsum boards of 12.5 mm in thickness reinforced with glass fiber were proven satisfactory to provide 1‐h fire resistance with load‐bearing wall and floor. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.