huangyhg

light gage/cold formed steel wall - continuous bracing?
forgive me if this is a very basic question - as i am new to light gage steel design....
when you are designing a light gage exterior wall - how do you establish 'continuous lateral bracing'? is this assumed if sheathing is on the exterior (compression) flange? if yes - is there a minimum sheathing thickness or fastening requirement?
i have always been told that bracing is effective if it prevents twist of the cross section and/or lateral movement of the compression flange. however, i'm not sure what constitutes "preventing lateral movement" (i have always assumed that metal deck on joist or steel beams acts as bracing - so i believe this would be similar)
i'm also desiging a cfs parapet wall and trying to determine if sheathing on both sides will act as continuous lateral bracing. i woudl think the only thing that would change is that you would now have two compression flanges due to wind loading from both sides.
if possible i would like to develop full moment capacity (sx*fy). obviously this is only possible if the memeber can resist ltb. otherwise you are stuck using the nominal flexural strength charts (kl vs mn) which greatly reduce your capacity.
does anyone have a reference they could suggest i review for this? i have reviewed the aisi manual/spec/commentary, but haven't found anything regarding this.
i greatly appreciate your help and again i apologize if this is an elementary question.
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