Testing and FE modeling of lateral resistance of shearwalls in light wood frame structures

Abstract:

In order to investigate the performance of shearwalls connected with domestic nails in light wood frame structures,lateral resistance tests were conducted on 14 shearwalls in 7 groups with different dimensions and structural arrangements.Using ABAQUS,FE models of shearwalls were developed to simulate the structural behaviour.Both the experimental and numerical results show that failure of nail connections is the primary cause leading to the failure of shearwalls.The load-carrying capacity and the stiffness of shearwalls are proportional to the width.The performance of shearwalls with an opening,in terms of load-carrying capacity and stiffness,is higher than that of shearwalls without an opening but with the width equaling to the sum of the wall segments from the two sides of the opening.Gypsum panels improve the performance of shearwalls significantly.The empirical equations to predict the lateral resistance and stiffness of shearwalls were derived based on the test and FE modelling.