Static and dynamic analysis of timber shear walls

Light-frame wood structures have evolved in recent years to the point where their earthquake resistance is now questionable. Shear walls are commonly used to provide lateral stiffness and strength in wood buildings. Therefore, accurate predictions of the seismic behaviour of timber shear walls are necessary in order to evaluate the safety of existing timber buildings and improve design practice. This paper develops and validates a simple structural analysis model to predict the behaviour of timber shear walls under lateral static loads and earthquake excitations. The model is restricted to two-dimensional shear walls with arbitrary geometry. The nonlinear load –slip characteristics of the fasteners are used in a displacement-based energy formulation to yield the static and dynamic equilibrium equations. The model is embedded in a shear wall analysis program (SWAP) developed for microcomputer applications. The predictions of the model are compared with full-scale racking and shake table tests. The ability of the model to accurately predict the lateral stiffness, the ultimate lateral load capacity, and the complete earthquake response of timber shear walls is clearly demonstrated. Key words: dynamics, earthquakes, seismic response, timber construction, walls, wood.