Damage assessment of wood frame shear walls subjected to lateral wind load and windborne debris impact

Abstract

A number of studies have been performed to understand the lateral load carrying capacity of wood frame shear walls. The existing studies, however, have been primarily focused on the intact shear walls, disregarding the possibility of capacity loss due to prior extreme loading events. During windstorms, in particular, windborne debris is the leading cause of damage and destruction. While the impact force induced by windborne debris can directly damage a shear wall, the consequences can become disastrous, as the prior damage adversely affects the in-plane lateral load carrying capacity of the shear wall. This critical aspect motivated the current study to investigate the impact and post-impact performance of wood frame shear walls. For this purpose, a high-fidelity computational framework capable of characterizing both types of damage is developed. Further to providing an in-depth understanding of the process of damage formation and propagatin, this study examines how a range of impact scenarios and wall design factors influence the extent of damage that the wood frame shear walls experience in a windstorm. The outcome of this study is then employed to introduce a capacity loss index for the multi-hazard design and assessment of wood frame (and other similar) shear walls in the regions prone to severe windstorms.