The objective of this thesis is to determine if the single sided resistance spot weld (RSW) can be used as a feasible connection method for cold formed steel (CFS) shear walls subject to lateral force of either seismic or wind loads on mobile shelters. The research consisted of three phases which include: a design as a 3D BIM model, connection tests of the resistance spot weld, and full-scale testing of the designed solid wall panels. The shear wall testing was conducted on specimens with both resistance spot weld and self-drilling screws and the results from tests gave a direct comparison of these connections when the solid wall panel was subjected to in-plane shear forces. The full-scale tests also included 4-point bending tests which was designed to investigate the wall panel's resistance to the lateral loads applied perpendicularly to the surface. The research discovered that the singled sided resistance spot weld achieved similar performance as the self-drilling screws in the applications of CFS wall panels for mobile shelters. The proposed single sided resistance spot weld has advantages of low cost, no added weight, fast fabrication, and it is a feasible connection method for CFS wall panels.

This thesis presents experiments and numerical analysis of the cold-formed steel clip angle in three different limit states which are shear, compression, and combination of the screw connection. A previous cold-formed steel clip angle test program (which is Phase 1) developed design methods for clip angle. Therefore, the object of this thesis is to further investigate the behavior and design methods of loading-bearing cold-formed steel clip angles under different screw pattern. For each limit state, a test program was conducted to investigate the behavior, strength, and deflection of the clip angle. The test result were compared with previous CFS clip angle design method. Amending existing CFS clip angle method were developed by each of the four limit states studied in this project.