Finite-Element Analysis of Wood-Frame Houses under Lateral Loads
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 12
Abstract
The study dealt with rigorous finite-element analysis of wood-frame houses to study the influence of the roof, side and partition walls, and base connection (of wall to lower structure, such as a concrete foundation and a wood floor system) on the in-plane load resistance of the walls. Detailed finite-element models of wood-frame houses were developed by incorporating all the connection details. Simulation results of a complete house and a standalone wall of a full house were validated against responses from the literature. Based on the simulated responses, it was demonstrated that the in-plane load resistance of a wall is significantly underestimated when the resistances are evaluated from a standalone wall considering no system effects from the roof and side and partition walls. Hence, a system effect factor is proposed as a function of wall aspect ratio and presence of roof to take into account the increase in in-plane load resistances of the walls calculated based on the available analytical methods. The results of the analysis also demonstrate the effect of the connection between the wall frame and the lower structure. When the wall frame is connected to the lower structure with nails instead of anchor bolts, the walls of the house tend to overturn rather than undergo shear deflection of the oriented strand board panels, resulting in lower in-plane load resistances. Therefore, based on the simulated responses, a reduction factor is proposed for the in-plane load resistance of the wall when the wall is connected to the lower structure with nails.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work is funded by the NIST under the Tornado Risk Maps for Building Design project (SB1431-12-CQ-0014). Special thanks are given to Dr. Long Phan (NIST) and Dr. March Levitan (NIST) for their inputs and feedback regarding this work. Applied Research Associates (ARA) is acknowledged for providing partial funding for the preparation of this manuscript.
References
ANSI and AWC (American National Standards Institute and American Wood Council). 2015. Special design provisions for wind and seismic. Leesburg, VA: AWC.
APA (Engineered Wood Association). 1997. Plywood design specification. Tacoma, WA: APA.
Asiz, A., Y. H. Chui, I. Smith, and L. Zhou. 2009. Development of advanced system design procedures for the Canadian wood design standard. Ottawa: Natural Resources Canada.
ASTM. 2012. Standard test methods for mechanical fasteners in wood. ASTM D1761. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Collier, P. C. 2005. Post-earthquake performance of passive fire protection systems. Judgeford, New Zealand: BRANZ.
Cramer, S. M., O. M. Friday, R. H. White, and G. Sriprutkiat. 2003. “Mechanical properties of gypsum board at elevated temperatures.” In Proc., Fire and Materials 2003 Conf., 33–42. London: Interscience Communications.
Dolan, J. D., and C. P. Heine. 1997. Monotonic tests of wood-frame shear walls with various openings and base restraint configurations. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.
Dolan, J. D., and A. C. Johnson. 1996. Monotonic tests of long shear walls with openings. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.
Doudak, G., I. Smith, G. McClure, M. Mohammad, and P. Lepper. 2006. “Tests and finite element models of wood light-frame shear walls with openings.” Prog. Struct. Eng. Mat. 8 (4): 165–174. https://doi.org/10.1002/pse.223.
Fischer, D., A. Filiatrault, B. Folz, C-M. Uang, and F. Seible. 2000. Shake table tests of a two-storey house. San Diego: Univ. of California San Diego.
Griffiths, D. R. 1987. “The racking resistance of timber frame walls assessed by experimental and analytical techniques.” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Surrey.
IBC (International Building Code). 2011. 2012 International Building Code. Country Club Hills, IL: International Code Council.
IRC (International Residential Code). 2015. International residential code for one- and two-family dwellings. Country Club Hills, IL: International Code Council.
Kumar, N., V. Dayal, and P. P. Sarkar. 2012. “Failure of wood-framed low-rise buildings under tornado wind loads.” Eng. Struct. 39 (Jun): 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2012.02.011.
Mi, H. 2004. “Behavior of unblocked wood shearwalls.” M.S. thesis, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, Univ. of New Brunswick.
NAHB Research Center. 1999. Perforated shear walls with conventional and innovative base restraint connections. Marlboro, MD: NAHB Research Center.
NAHB Research Center. 2001. Wood shear walls with corners. Marlboro, MD: NAHB Research Center.
NAHB Research Center. 2009. Evaluation of full-scale house testing under lateral loading. Marlboro, MD: NAHB Research Center.
NAHB Research Center. 2010. Evaluation of wood sole plate anchorage to concrete under monotonic and cyclic loading. Upper Marlboro, MD: NAHB Research Center.
Pan, F., C. S. Cai, and W. Zhang. 2013. “Refined finite element modeling of a typical low-rise building for damage predictions under hurricane loads.” In Proc., 12th Americas Conf. on Wind Engineering (12ACWE). Red Hook, NY: Curran Associates.
Pardoen, G. C., A. Waltman, R. P. Kazanjy, E. Freund, and C. H. Hamilton. 2003. Testing and analysis of one-story and two-story shear walls under cyclic loading. Richmond, CA: Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering.
Patton-Mallory, M., R. W. Wolfe, L. A. Soltis, and R. M. Gutkowski. 1985. “Light-frame shear wall length and opening effects.” J. Struct. Eng. 111 (10): 2227–2239. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1985)111:10(2227).
Phillips, T. L. 1990. “Load sharing characteristics of three-dimensional wood diaphragms.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State Univ.
Phillips, T. L., R. Y. Itani, and D. I. McLean. 1993. “Lateral load sharing by diaphragms in wood-framed buildings.” J. Struct. Eng. 119 (5): 1556–1571. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1993)119:5(1556).
Rahmanian, I. 2011. “Thermal and mechanical properties of gypsum boards and their influences on fire resistance of gypsum board based systems.” Ph.D. dissertation, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, Univ. of Manchester.
Ross, R. J. 2010. Wood handbook: Wood as an engineering material. Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service.
Salenikovich, A. J., and J. D. Dolan. 2000. “The racking performance of light-frame shear walls with various tie-down restraints.” In Proc., World Conf. on Timber Engineering. Vancouver, Canada: Univ. of British Columbia.
Sarkar, P. P., and H. Kikitsu. 2008. Damage survey report on Parkersburg and New Hartford. Iowa City, IA: Iowa State Univ.
Sideris, K. K., P. Manita, and K. Sideris. 2004. “Estimation of ultimate modulus of elasticity and poisson ratio of normal concrete.” Cem. Concr. Comput. 26 (6): 623–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0958-9465(03)00084-2.
Sugiyama, H. 1981. “Evaluation of wood-based shear walls with opening.” Wood Ind. 36 (7): 3–8.
Thampi, H. 2010. “Interaction of a translating tornado with low-rise building.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Iowa State Univ.
Thampi, H., V. Dayal, and P. P. Sarkar. 2011. “Finite element analysis of interaction of tornados with a low-rise timber building.” J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 99 (4): 369–377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2011.01.004.
Thurston, S. J. 1993. Report on racking resistance of long sheathed timber framed walls with openings. Judgeford, New Zealand: Building Research Association of New Zealand.
Thurston, S. J. 2003. Full-sized house cyclic racking test. Judgeford, New Zealand: Building Research Association of New Zealand.
Thurston, S. J. 2006. Racking tests on rooms and isolated walls to investigate uplift restraint and systems effects. Judgeford, New Zealand: Building Research Association of New Zealand.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 12 • December 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 5, 2018
Accepted: Mar 13, 2019
Published online: Sep 19, 2019
Published in print: Dec 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Feb 19, 2020
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.