Load-bearing light gauge steel framed (LSF) wall is one of the main structural elements in cold-formed steel (CFS) buildings. When cavity insulation is used to enhance the energy performance of LSF walls, their structural adequacy based fire resistance levels (FRL) decrease considerably. Hence, new insulation materials and/or different wall configurations are considered. This research study investigated the use of silica aerogel fibreglass blanket as external insulation to enhance the FRL of LSF walls. Three fire tests were conducted to determine the time-temperature profiles of different wall components and the FRL of aerogel blanket insulated LSF walls. Suitable finite element (FE) models were then developed, validated and used to further optimise the LSF wall configuration. This study shows that silica aerogel fibreglass blanket, when used as a form of external insulation, enhances the fire resistance by delaying the stud temperature development by about 20 min and reducing the stud flange temperature difference by up to 200 °C when compared with cavity insulated LSF walls. However, the aerogel blanket accelerates the temperature development of fire protective gypsum boards, which leads to an early failure of these boards. This paper presents the details of the fire tests, finite element study and their findings.

承重轻型钢框架（LSF）墙是冷弯型钢（CFS）建筑物中的主要结构元素之一。当使用空腔绝缘来增强LSF墙的能量性能时，其基于结构充分性的耐火等级（FRL）会大大降低。因此，考虑了新的绝缘材料和/或不同的壁构造。这项研究研究了使用二氧化硅气凝胶玻璃纤维毯作为外部隔热材料来增强LSF墙的FRL。进行了三项防火测试，以确定不同墙组件的时间-温度曲线以及气凝胶毯绝缘LSF墙的FRL。然后，开发，验证并使用合适的有限元（FE）模型来进一步优化LSF墙的配置。这项研究表明，二氧化硅气凝胶玻璃纤维毯，当用作外墙保温形式时，与型腔隔热LSF墙相比，可将螺柱温度发展延迟约20分钟，并将螺柱法兰的温差降低多达200°C，从而提高耐火性。然而，气凝胶毯加速了防火石膏板的温度发展，导致这些板的早期失效。本文介绍了耐火测试，有限元研究及其发现的详细信息。导致这些板的早期故障。本文介绍了耐火测试，有限元研究及其发现的详细信息。导致这些板的早期故障。本文介绍了耐火测试，有限元研究及其发现的详细信息。