Experimental Seismic Collapse Study of a Full-Scale, 4-Story, Soft-Story, Wood-Frame Building

Abstract

In the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout much of California, there are a large number of wood-frame buildings with garage space at ground level, resulting in open fronts on one or two sides. This type of geometry results in a soft and weak first story, and buildings of this archetype are generally referred to as soft-story buildings. During an earthquake, these buildings are susceptible to severe damage and collapse and have been recognized as a disaster-preparedness problem. The five-university Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)-Soft project culminated in a series of full-scale soft-story wood-frame building tests to validate two different retrofit philosophies and included a 2-month test program encompassing four different retrofits. The building had