Buckling of Conventionally Sheathed Stud Walls
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 5
Abstract
Sheathing materials such as plywood, oriented strand board (OSB), drywall, and fiberboard are commonly attached to one or both sides of load-bearing stud walls in residential and commercial construction. There is no consensus among structural engineering professionals as to which of these sheathing materials provide protection against weak-axis buckling of the load-bearing wood studs. Plywood is generally accepted as providing the necessary bracing, but building codes do not specifically state which of the other sheathing materials are acceptable for bracing studs against compression buckling. This study involves testing of tall by wide stud wall specimens sheathed with OSB both sides, OSB one side, drywall one side, drywall both sides, Thermo-Ply one side, fiberboard one side, and no sheathing. The allowable axial load according to the wood specification for a long wall specimen with studs braced in the weak direction is . Each of the sheathed specimens failed at more than 2.9 times the allowable load; i.e., each sheathing material provided a factor of safety of at least 2.9 against strong-axis buckling under compression load. Therefore, each of the materials, when properly attached, was capable of resisting weak-axis stud buckling. Specimens with drywall fastened to one or both sides had a higher ultimate load than specimens with oriented strand board fastened to one side.
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References
American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA). (2001). National design specification for wood construction with supplement, Washington, D.C.
International Code Council (ICC). (2000). Residential building code, Falls Church, Va.
International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO). (1997). Uniform building code, Vol. 2, Whittier, Calif.
Marxhausen, P. D., (2004). “Column action buckling of conventionally sheathed stud walls.” MS thesis, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver.
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Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 20, 2004
Accepted: Jul 19, 2005
Published online: May 1, 2006
Published in print: May 2006
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: J. Daniel Dolan
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