Experimental and numerical study of OSB sheathed-LVL stud wall with stapled connections

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental and a numerical study on the OSB-LVL joints and light OSB sheathed-LVL stud walls. The joints and the walls were comprised of Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) studs and/or joists with 6 mm thick oriented strand board (OSB) sheathings stapled on both sides. First, monotonic static and cyclic tests were performed on the stapled OSB-LVL joints to study influence of the thin OSB panels, length of the staples and their edge distance on the failure mode, loading capacity and ductility of the OSB-LVL joints. Then, three full-scale OSB sheathed-LVL stud walls with pull-down rods were tested under monotonic static gravity and lateral loads and cyclic lateral loads to evaluate the failure load, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the walls. The well-known CASHEW load-slip model was calibrated against the results of stapled OSB-LVL joints and the calibrated model was used in conjunction with a simple mechanistic model to predict the cyclic response of the light LVL stud walls with OSB sheathing. The wall behaviour under vertical and lateral loads were also simulated with a 3D nonlinear finite element (FE) model to further demonstrate advantages of the simplified models over advanced nonlinear FE models.