WOOD SHEAR WALL CYCLIC TEST PLANNING AND ANALYSIS OF DAMAGE USING MEM-SPRING THEORY

Abstract

Wood light-frame structures can be subjected to strong lateral forces during earthquakes or high-wind events. These natural hazards often trigger complex hysteresis response of the shear walls of these structures causing structural damage. Damage can be hard to assess accurately. Unlike what has been reported in the literature of modeling wood shear wall hysteresis, this study uses a damage indicator called absement, recently proposed in a theoretical study. Absement is defined as the time integral of displacement. For the first time, absement is used for test planning in a laboratory setting. A critical testing detail concerning the out-of-plane constraint was implemented using a roller design. Using three wall specimens to demonstrate the feasibility, the author proposed a comprehensive damage assessment scheme with three aspects. They are physical inspection, and calculated dissipated energy and absement. In detail, two different loading protocols from ASTM E2126 Involving different loading patterns, amplitudes, and frequencies were made equivalent by matching the cumulative absement values of these loading protocols. The future work will look into how to make these three aspects consistent and/or complementary for effective damage assessment. The key contribution of this study is the creation of a methodology that enables absement to be used in damage assessment. Although the outcome is not fully conclusive, this study provides the feasibility, analysis, and suggestions for future studies to build upon.