title: Structural and thermal performance of cold-formed steel studs with slits

authors: Ghosh, Kushal

abstract: Cold-formed steel (CFS) studs in lightweight construction increasingly incorporate web slits to limit thermal bridging, yet these openings can reduce axial strength. This thesis integrates structural and thermal assessments through validated non-linear elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) and complementary heat-transfer modelling. Shell-element FEA models were developed and validated against tests, then used in a 960-case parametric study spanning section dimensions, slit geometry, thickness, and member length to establish the influence of slits on concentric axial capacity. The results were evaluated against the Direct Strength Method (DSM) in AS/NZS 4600, leading to strength-reduction recommendations and modified DSM expressions that achieve reliability indices β ≥ 2.5. The programme was extended to combined axial compression and minor-axis bending using 1,134 FEA models with six eccentricities, demonstrating a systematic discrepancy in current AS/NZS 4600 interaction checks: strengths are generally underestimated at eccentricities of 10–25 mm and overestimated at 50 mm. A new interaction equation incorporating element and web slenderness ratios is proposed and verified within the AISI S100 reliability framework. Subsequently, a parametric three-dimensional heat-transfer study quantified the dependence of heat flux on geometry and slit parameters, providing a quantitative basis for thermal performance gains and their balance with strength. The thesis proposes design recommendations and revised equations for slitted CFS studs that satisfy codified reliability targets and support informed selection of slit configurations to balance energy efficiency and structural capacity in practice.

text: Structural and thermal performance of cold-formed steel studs with slits Cold-formed steel (CFS) studs in lightweight construction increasingly incorporate web slits to limit thermal bridging, yet these openings can reduce axial strength. This thesis integrates structural and thermal assessments through validated non-linear elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) and complementary heat-transfer modelling. Shell-element FEA models were developed and validated against tests, then used in a 960-case parametric study spanning section dimensions, slit geometry, thickness, and member length to establish the influence of slits on concentric axial capacity. The results were evaluated against the Direct Strength Method (DSM) in AS/NZS 4600, leading to strength-reduction recommendations and modified DSM expressions that achieve reliability indices β ≥ 2.5. The programme was extended to combined axial compression and minor-axis bending using 1,134 FEA models with six eccentricities, demonstrating a systematic discrepancy in current AS/NZS 4600 interaction checks: strengths are generally underestimated at eccentricities of 10–25 mm and overestimated at 50 mm. A new interaction equation incorporating element and web slenderness ratios is proposed and verified within the AISI S100 reliability framework. Subsequently, a parametric three-dimensional heat-transfer study quantified the dependence of heat flux on geometry and slit parameters, providing a quantitative basis for thermal performance gains and their balance with strength. The thesis proposes design recommendations and revised equations for slitted CFS studs that satisfy codified reliability targets and support informed selection of slit configurations to balance energy efficiency and structural capacity in practice.

year: 2025

title: Experiencing “the Wrong Kind of Puberty”: Navigating Teenage Years with a Variation in Sex Characteristics

authors: Joy, Eileen

abstract: There are many different variations in sex characteristics, some of which have implications for how the body goes through puberty. This paper draws from critical disability studies and childhood and youth studies to understand the teenage experiences and aspirations of young people with variations in sex characteristics, focusing particularly on navigating puberty. We undertook a reflexive thematic analysis with interview data from 12 young people in England, all assigned female at birth. Our analysis produced a central theme: aspiring to certainty through “fixing” the wrong kind of puberty. Participants experience puberty as a time where things exist on a continuum of rightness and wrongness in comparison with their peers and in relation to their specific variation. We suggest that the neoliberal aspiration to and illusion of bodily control and certainty provides the context within which the medical management of variations in sex characteristics makes sense. Going through medical intervention in relation to a variation in sex characteristics provides a very particular aspirational context for young people. The experience of puberty is intersectionally differentiated for young people with variations in sex characteristics.

text: Experiencing “the Wrong Kind of Puberty”: Navigating Teenage Years with a Variation in Sex Characteristics There are many different variations in sex characteristics, some of which have implications for how the body goes through puberty. This paper draws from critical disability studies and childhood and youth studies to understand the teenage experiences and aspirations of young people with variations in sex characteristics, focusing particularly on navigating puberty. We undertook a reflexive thematic analysis with interview data from 12 young people in England, all assigned female at birth. Our analysis produced a central theme: aspiring to certainty through “fixing” the wrong kind of puberty. Participants experience puberty as a time where things exist on a continuum of rightness and wrongness in comparison with their peers and in relation to their specific variation. We suggest that the neoliberal aspiration to and illusion of bodily control and certainty provides the context within which the medical management of variations in sex characteristics makes sense. Going through medical intervention in relation to a variation in sex characteristics provides a very particular aspirational context for young people. The experience of puberty is intersectionally differentiated for young people with variations in sex characteristics.

year: 2023

title: Murau a te tini (Mourned by the multitudes) & Pounamu (Greenstone)

authors: Rewi, Poia

subjects: Māori poetry

abstract: A song and a poem by Poia Rewi.

text: Murau a te tini (Mourned by the multitudes) & Pounamu (Greenstone) A song and a poem by Poia Rewi.

year: 2000-10