Light gauge steel stud walls have been widely used in buildings as load-bearing members. But if used as non-load-bearing walls, more rows of perforations can be placed on stud webs and then the thermal bridge effect can be reduced. Experiments on six non-load-bearing light gauge slotted steel stud walls were conducted using a calibrated hot box. The temperatures of the steel studs and gypsum plasterboard were monitored for subsequent analysis of thermal bridging. The effects of parameters (number of rows of perforations, stud web height, and the ratio of window area to wall area) on the insulating capacity of the wall were identified and analyzed. Thermal transmittance decreases by 18.5% and 29.6% for specimens with 3 and 7 rows of perforations in comparison with the specimen without perforations, while it decreases by 29.8% and 42.7% respectively for 150 mm and 200 mm thick walls compared with that of the 100 mm thick wall. However, thermal transmittance increases obviously for the wall with a window opening relative to the wall without a window opening, reaching 14.7% in this test since more studs are placed around the window opening. A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of the wall was developed and validated against experimental results, and then was used for parametric studies. A general method of calculating the thermal transmittance of the light gauge slotted steel stud wall was suggested based on the experiment and the FE model results, which can consider influences of wall thickness, web perforations, window openings, and thermal properties of materials.

Non-load-bearing light gauge slotted steel stud wall; thermal bridging effect; thermal insulation; design method; thermal transmittance