Development of Test Method for Determining Plasterboard Bracing Performance
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 130, Issue 7
Abstract
The Australian Residential Timber-Framed Construction standard (AS1684:1999) has recently been revised to explicitly define the bracing contribution of nominally fixed plasterboard clad walls as 0.45 kN/m for cladding on one side and 0.75 kN/m for cladding on two sides. These values clarify the allowance, which designers may rely upon for the presence of plasterboard and their inclusion in the standard infers a necessity for plasterboard products to at least meet these requirements. A review of the relevant Australian, ISO, and ASTM standards, as well as plasterboard manufacturers’ in-house quality control tests has established that these tests mainly focus on serviceability aspect of plasterboard (e.g., storage, transportation, and installation) rather than that of structural bracing performance. It has also been determined that there are no direct correlations between serviceability conditions and structural bracing performance of plasterboard. In fact, a limited set of data provided by the plasterboard manufacturers shows that almost no correlation exists between the current quality control tests and the most commonly measured parameter, the density of plasterboard. It has been concluded that current tests are inadequate to serve as control measures for bracing performance of plasterboard. Nonetheless, it must be noted that density is not the only parameter that may influence the bracing performance of plasterboard; other parameters such as linerboard strength and bonding between gypsum and linerboard may also affect the bracing capacity. This paper details a new test, termed fastener bearing test, which provides a method to evaluate the bracing capacity of plasterboard. The results of this test show a very high correlation with shear connection tests. The proposed test is practical and simple to perform as part of the manufacturing process, in addition to the current tests, without severe cost and time penalty to the plasterboard manufacturers.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). (1976). “Standard method of static load test for shear resistance of framed walls for buildings.” ASTM E564, West Conshohocken, Pa.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). (1980). “Standard methods of conducting strength tests of panels for building construction.” ASTM E72, West Conshohocken, Pa.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). (1997). “Standard test methods for physical testing of gypsum panel products.” ASTM C473, West Conshohocken, Pa.
Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE)–Caltech Woodframe Project. (2002). “Recommendation for earthquake resistance in the design and construction of woodframe buildings.” Final Review Draft, Richmond, Calif.
Cooney, R. C., and Collins, M. J. (1988). “A wall bracing test and evaluation procedure.” Technical Paper P21, Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), Judgeford, New Zealand.
Dolan, J. D.(1991). “Monotonic and cyclic nail connection tests.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 19(1), 97–104.
Dowrick, D. J., and Smith, P. C.(1986). “Timber sheathed walls for wind and earthquake resistance.” Bull. N. Z. Nat. Soc. Earthquake Eng., 19(2), 123–134.
Experimental Building Station. (1978). “Guidelines for testing and evaluation of products for cyclone-prone areas.” Technical Record 440, Recommendations of a Workshop Held during July 1977, Dept. of Construction, James Cook Univ., Townsville, Australia.
Gad, E. F. (1997). “Performance of brick-veneer steel-framed domestic structures under earthquake loading.” PhD thesis, The Univ. of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Gad, E. F., Chandler, A. M., and Duffield, C. F., (2001). “Modal analysis of steel framed domestic construction for application to seismic design.” J. Vib. Control, 7(1), 91–111.
Gad, E. F., Duffield, C. F., Hutchinson, G. L., Mansell, D. S., and Stark, G.(1999). “Lateral performance of cold-formed steel-framed domestic structures.” Eng. Struct., 21(1), 83–95.
Gupta, A. K., and Kuo, G. P.(1985). “Behaviour of wood-framed shear walls.” Eng. Struct., 111(8), 1722–1733.
International Code Council (2000). International Building Code (IBC-2000), Falls Church, Va.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (1980). “Gypsum plasterboard—Specification.” ISO 6308.
International Organization for Standardization. (ISO). (1998). “Timber structures—joints made with mechanical fasteners quasi static reversed-cyclic test method.” ISO/TC 165 WD 16670, Geneva.
Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS). (1994). “Methods of performance test of panels for building construction.” JIS A 1414, Tokyo.
Kasal, B., and Leicht, R. J.(1992). “Incorporating load sharing in shear design of light-frame structures.” J. Struct. Eng., 118(12), 3350–3361.
King, A. B., and Lim, K. Y. S. (1991). “Supplement to P21: An evaluation method of P21 test results for use with NZS 3604:1990.” Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), Judgeford, New Zealand.
Lewicki, D. E., and Dinehart, D. W. (2000). “Combining wood and viscoelastic material.” Proc. World Conf. on Timber Engineering, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Liew, Y. L., Duffield, C. F., and Gad, E. F. (2001a). “Testing procedure for bracing quality of plasterboard.” ARC SPIRT Project Rep. No. RR/Struct/03/2001, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Univ. of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Liew, Y. L., Gad, E. F., and Duffield C. F. (2001b). “Assessment of plasterboard properties and relationship to lateral capacity of residential structures.” Proc., Australasian Structural Engineering Conf. 2001, Vol. 2, Gold Coast, Australia, 539–545.
Liew, Y. L., Gad, E. F., and Duffield, C. F. (2002a). “Development of a method to control the bracing performance of plasterboard.” Proc., 17th Australasian Conf. on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM), Gold Coast, Australia, 339–343.
Liew, Y. L., Gad, E. F., and Duffield, C. F.(2002b). “The influence of plasterboard clad walls on the structural behaviour of low rise residential buildings.” Electronic J. Struct. Eng., 1, 1–16.
McCutcheon, W. J.(1985). “Racking deformations in wood shear walls.” J. Struct. Eng., 111(2), 257–269.
Reardon, G. F. (1988). “Effects on non-structural cladding on timber framed construction.” Proc. Int. Conf. on Timber Engineering, Forest Products Research Society, Madison, Wis., 276–281.
Salenikovich, A. J. (2000). “The racking performance of light-frame shear walls.” PhD thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg, Va.
Standards Association of Australia (1992). “National timber framing code.” AS 1684:1992, North Sydney, Australia.
Standard Association of Australia (1993a). “Domestic and metal framing.” AS 3623, North Sydney, Australia.
Standards Association of Australia. (1993b). “Minimum design loads on structures. Part 4: Earthquake Loads.” AS1170.4, North Sydney, Australia.
Standard Association of Australia (1998). “Gypsum plasterboard.” AS/NZS 2588, North Sydney, Australia.
Standards Association of Australia (1999). “Residential timber-framed construction.” AS 1684:1999, North Sydney, Australia.
Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC). (1996). Standard method of cyclic (reversed) load test for shear resistance of framed walls for buildings, Whittier, Calif.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 130 • Issue 7 • July 2004
Pages: 1108 - 1116
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 12, 2002
Accepted: Oct 27, 2003
Published online: Jun 15, 2004
Published in print: Jul 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.