Out-of-Plane Seismic Performance and Detailing of Brick Veneer Walls
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 7
Abstract
The out-of-plane seismic performance of residential brick veneer walls built over wood-frame backup was evaluated as a function of construction detailing. Shake table tests were conducted on a full-scale brick veneer wall panel, with a window opening, representing the gable-end wall of a typical home structure; the structural performance of corrugated sheet metal veneer-to-wood tie connections was also characterized by separate laboratory testing. The wall panel test specimen was prepared following typical construction practice for brick veneer wall systems, in general conformance with current specified prescriptive design and construction requirements. The shake table tests captured the performance of the brick veneer wall system, including interaction and load-sharing between the brick veneer, corrugated sheet metal ties, and wood-frame backup. Detailed three-dimensional finite-element (FE) models were also developed representing the full-scale brick veneer wall panel specimen, including nonlinear inelastic properties for the tie connections. After calibration based on test results, the FE wall panel model effectively captured static and dynamic experimental brick veneer wall behavior at different response levels, up to and including tie damage and even instability/collapse of the wall panel. Parametric studies were then carried out using FE wall panel models to evaluate the effects of certain types and layouts of tie connections, as well as geometric variations in brick veneer wall construction. Overall seismic performance of brick veneer walls was closely related to the individual tie connection deformation limits, especially for damage in tension. The grid spacing of tie connections, as well as tie installation along the edges and in upper regions of the walls, controlled the ultimate behavior of the brick veneer wall panels. Design guides, codes, and current construction practices have been evaluated in light of the overall findings from these experimental and analytical studies.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded in part by State Farm Insurance (through Laird Macdonald, Superintendent of their Building Technology Lab, and Rose Grant) and also by the Mid-America Earthquake (MAE) Center, under a grant from the Earthquake Engineering Research Centers program of the National Science Foundation per Award No. NSFEEC-9701785. The authors would like to thank NSEL research engineer Grzegorz Banas for his assistance during the laboratory testing program, as well as students James Gecan and Benjamin Redding for their assistance during preparation of the experiments.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 7 • July 2010
Pages: 781 - 794
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 12, 2008
Accepted: Dec 9, 2009
Published online: Dec 14, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2010
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