Abstract:

MONOTONIC AND CYCLIC PERFORMANCE OF STRUCTRUALLY INSULATED PANEL SHEAR WALLS

Jared Bernard Jamison

The majority of residential construction and a significant portion of light commercial and industrial construction has been, and will continue to be light-framed timber construction. In recent years, innovations have surfaced to improve upon light-framed construction. Structurally insulated panels (SIPS) are gaining popularity due to their superior energy efficiency and ease of construction. Light-framed timber construction has proven to be trustworthy in high-wind and seismic regions due to its lightweight construction and numerous redundancies. Shear walls, along with floor and roof diaphragms, resist lateral loads in a timber structure. In the past, research has focused on the static racking performance of light-framed shear walls. More recently, research has been focused on the cyclic and dynamic performance of shear walls.

To the author's knowledge, no other research is reported in the literature on the cyclic performance of SIPS shear walls. It is important to understand and quantify the monotonic and cyclic response of shear walls. In this study, twenty-three full-scale shear walls were tested under monotonic loading and sequential phased displacement cyclic loading. Four different wall configurations were examined. Monotonic and cyclic performance of the shear walls and monotonic and cyclic testing procedures are compared. Response of SIPS shear walls is also compared to the response of light-framed shear walls based on capacity, stiffness, ductility, energy dissipation, damping characteristics, and overall behavior. Results of this study will provide useful information regarding the performance of SIPS shear walls and similar systems subjected to static, cyclic, and dynamic lateral loads.

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