Whole Building Testing and Modeling for Improved Design of Light-Frame Buildings

Simplifying assumptions in the analysis and design of light-frame wood buildings can result in either uneconomical or unsafe structures. This paper describes the development of improved tools for performance analysis of light-frame buildings under wind and earthquake loads that can be used to improve current design procedures. We present herein the details and preliminary test results of a full-scale one-story house tested under static cyclic loading. The irregularly shaped house is being used to experimentally validate a three-dimensional Finite Element (FE) model of the house. Once validated, the whole building FE model will be used to develop improved design procedures that take into account systems behavior. Sample analysis results are presented.