Testing and Analysis of One-Story and Two-Story Shear Walls Under Cyclic Loading

The goals of Task 1.4.4 of the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project were to: (1) define and quantify seismic performance levels for common residential wood framed wall surface finishes, (2) establish engineering parameters of wall systems, (3) consider effects of different wall finishes on seismic performance, and (4) compare shear wall component test results with those obtained from the shear walls used in the UCSD sake table, two story model house.

The Task 1.4.4 shear wall test program consisted of 26 one-story and 2 two-story configurations. While oriented strand board (OSB) sheathing was used for most shear walls, a variety of wall finished (stucco, gypsum wall board, HardiPlank) were considered due to results of the UCSD shake table test results from Task 1.1.1. The other one-story shear walls considered fully sheathed (FS) as well as perforated shear walls with either a pedestrian door (PD) or garage door (GD) opening. The two-story shear walls considered (a) a fully sheathed configuration and (b) a replication of the Line 7, West Wall of the UCSD shake table test structure that included door and window openings.

The test results of the fully sheathed, one-story shear wall indicated that the peak loads for the nail-fastened (Group 4_ and staple-fastened (Group 11) were comparable whereas the post-peak loads for the nail-fastened shear walls were approximately 30% higher than those fastened with staples.