Small-Scale Rack Testing of Wood-Frame Shear Walls

Authors

  • Frank C. Beall
  • Jian Li
  • Thomas A. Breiner
  • James Wai
  • Carlos Machado
  • Georg Oberdorfer
  • Khalid Mosalam

Keywords:

Racking, monotonic testing, oriented strandboard, plywood, seismic

Abstract

A series of racking tests were performed with small-scale (1.2-m X 1.2-m) plywood and OSB assemblies as a means of assessing the potential of reduced assembly sizes in screening variables for subsequent full-size tests. The plywood materials and configurations included variations in stud spacing, nailing, panel thickness and number, and addition of gypsum board. OSB assemblies differed in panel orientation and nailing. The framing used was KD Select Structural to minimize variations in fastening. Both of the standard assemblies (400-mm stud spacing) were also exposed to high relative humidity and effects of green framing. There were clear statistical differences between most plywood configurations, but the most prominent were for center-stud framing, and 9-mm-thick panels. The addition of gypsum board gave higher maximum load and greater stiffness, but the increased variability precluded finding significant differences with the basecase. OSB was significantly lower than plywood in most results. Moisture effects were minimal except for a greater deformation of OSB to the maximum load. The effect of green framing for the bottom plate was minimal.

References

Hanson, D. 1990. Shear wall and diaphragm cyclic load testing. Report for the Office of the State Architect. Sacramento, CA.nLanglois, J. D. 2002. Effects of reference displacement and damage accumulation in wood shear walls subjected to the CUREE protocol. M.S. Thesis, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR. 39 pp.nLee, J. J., and J. P. Hong. 2000. Development of small-scale model for prediction of racking performances of lightframe shear walls. Proc. World Conf. on Timber Eng., March 2000, Whistler, Canada.nSalenikovich, A. J. 2000. The racking performance of lightframe shear walls. Ph.D. thesis, VPI&SU., Blacksburg, VA. 234 pp.nSerrette, R. L., J. Encalada, M. Juadines, and H. Nguyen. 1997. Static racking behavior of plywood, OSB, gypsum, and fiberbond walls with metal framing. J. Struct. Eng. August: 1079-1086.nZacher, E. G., and R. G. Gray. 1989. Lessons learned from dynamic tests of shear panels. Structural Design, Analysis and Testing (A. H-S. Ang, ed). Am. Soc. of Civil Eng., New York, NY. Pp. 134-142.n

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Published

2007-06-05

Issue

Number 2 / April 2006

Section

Research Contributions

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