Damped Timber Shear Wall: Shake-Table Tests and Analytical Models

Abstract

Light-timber frames, using plywood (PW), exhibit a pinched hysteresis response, and their energy absorption capacity is limited. The energy-dissipation capacity can be enhanced using energy-dissipation mechanisms. In this paper, two wood-friction-based connectors, with wood-plywood-wood (WPW) and wood-steel-wood (WSW), are utilized. Reverse-cyclic static load tests have shown that the WPW and WSW wall systems have nondegrading and stable hysteretic curves. In this paper, through shake-table tests, performance of WPW, WSW, PW, and WSW-PW coupled wall systems are investigated. As expected, the shake-table results indeed showed nondegrading hysteretic curve responses of WPW and WSW wall systems. Furthermore, a phenomenological model, where nonlinear behavior of the shear wall is reduced to a single spring element, is proposed for the wall systems. The nondegrading wall system (WPW, WSW) is modeled using the Bouc-Wen hysteretic model and the PW is modeled using the Pinching4 hysteretic model. Overall, there is good agreement between the test and analytical models. Results of the experimental test indeed show the utility of the new wall systems.