Stud wall bracing 2

[oengineer]

I have a question regarding stud wall bracing.

I have 12’ high metal stud walls for a building renovation for an indoor Volleyball court. There is no ceiling, the stud walls are partitions and open above to the 24’ plus roof height. Stud walls usually have diagonal bracing at the top to keep them supported laterally and this is usually concealed by a drop ceiling.

The client doesn’t want to see diagonal bracing all over the place going up to 24’ or 30’ high in some places. This would not look good.

Would anyone happen to have any suggestions on how I can specify the walls to have internal x’bracing or something to make them structurally sound from falling over without using diagonal braced studs from the top track of the partitions all the way up to the roof deck?

Any comments/suggestion are appreciated.

 

[oengineer]

What are your thoughts on allowing the other walls to act as a brace to the proposed wall? This proposed solution would not have the moment connection base plate nor the diamond ceiling plane bracing. It would just be the corner bracing. Any comments /suggestions are appreciated.

 

[XR250]

What are your thoughts on allowing the other walls to act as a brace to the proposed wall? This proposed solution would not have the moment connection base plate nor the diamond ceiling plane bracing. It would just be the corner bracing. Any comments /suggestions are appreciated.

You could probably do that but would need a girt on top of the wall capable of spanning from corner to corner. Maybe a 10" stud capped with a track would do the trick.

 

[oengineer]

@XR250 - Would this situation resolve possible overturning of the wall?

 

[Sawbux]

What if you used cables for bracing? less visible.

 

[KootK]

What are your thoughts on allowing the other walls to act as a brace to the proposed wall?

That's what my proposed solution does. The only difference between my proposal and your corner bracing proposal is that I've made the corner bracing so large that it fully trusses the roof. I've seen solutions where bracing is provided at 4' off the corners, kind of between your idea and mine. It can work but leaves some gaps in the load path in that the ceiling becomes a horizontal moment frame of sorts and it can be tough to detail the top tracks to follow that logic through.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[oengineer]

@KootK - You included the diamond bracing in the top of the ceiling plane of the stud wall. This new proposed solution wouldn't have that. It would pretty much be the picture I sent you with a diagonal brace inside the stud wall.

 

[KootK]

I know. Your system is a much weaker cousin to mine. Same basic concept though.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[XR250]

@XR250 - Would this situation resolve possible overturning of the wall?

It would if..
a) The girt was capable of resisting the wall stud out-of-plane loads.
b) The perpendicular walls were capable of acting as shearwalls to brace the girt - including out-of-plane stability themselves..


You just need to run the numbers and see.

 

[oengineer]

@XR250 - These walls are going inside a pre-engineered metal building. Would I need to find out the properties of the girts (i.e. cross-sectional area, section modulus, moment of inertia, yield strength, etc.) before I attach anything on to them to use as supports?

 

[oengineer]

@KootK - In your diamond sketch, how do you plan to construct the red top tracks on top of the wall? Would it be composed of one long member (say 18'-0" long) or of several short spanning members (say 8'-6" long)?

The reason I bring this up is I wanted to make my top track composed of several 8'-6" long members and have it connected together by field bolting. I figured this would be more economical then field welding and the member would be too long to shop weld.

One of the issues I am having in my analysis is instability. This is due to having the top track (or box header)pinned @ every 8'-6" and having pinned supports as well. If I treat it as a continuous member it will allow for moment to be carried throughout the top of the wall, but I am not sure how this could be economically built.

 

[jayrod12]

Why couldn't they just have an 18ft long member? that's nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[12345abc6ttyui67]

Can you not use bolted splice plates designed to carry the moment between each of the 8'-6" beams?