Lateral Loading Behaviors of Lightweight Wood-Frame Shear Walls with Ply-Bamboo Sheathing Panels

Abstract

This paper presents lateral-loading test results of lightweight wood-frame shear walls with ply-bamboo sheathing panels. Twenty shear walls of five different types of sizes, nailing, and loading schemes were tested under monotonic and cyclic loading programs in accordance with international standards. Two different nails were selected for their good constructability and used for constructing the shear wall models, as follows: (1) 51-mm long nail-gun-driven 6 d spiral nails, and (2) 51-mm long staple nails. Test results show that the application of ply-bamboo sheathing panels can satisfy the shearing capacity requirements for shear walls designed as structural elements. The ply-bamboo panel sheathed lightweight wood-frame shear walls have comparable load and displacement characteristics in addition to capacities as wood panel sheathed shear walls in the literature. The results obtained from the research reported in this paper can promote the application of wood and bamboo material-based seismic-resistant structures, which have the potential to be environmentally friendly.