OSB sheathed light-frame timber shear walls with strong anchorage subjected to vertical load, bending moment, and monotonic lateral load

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One of the common lateral load resisting systems in multi-story timber buildings in Central Europe are reinforced concrete shear walls. The RC shear walls are not optimal for timber buildings for several reasons such as: (i) the difference in tolerance between concrete and timber construction procedures, (ii) elevated construction time caused by necessary curing of concrete, (iii) moisture of concrete affecting the integrity and mechanical properties of timber, (iv) relatively high shear stiffness resulting in increased forces in seismic design, and (v) eccentricity with regard to applied seismic forces depending on the location of the shear walls. A light-frame timber shear wall (LFTSW) with OSB sheathing stapled to glued-laminated timber framing and strong anchorages has been investigated in this research program to be used as the single lateral load resisting system being located in the perimeter of the building. Results of experiments and numerical calculations showed 20% and 37% increases in shear stiffness and shear resistance, respectively, of the investigated LFTSWs in comparison with established LFTSW configurations. In addition to the conventional racking tests, vertical loads and bending moment were applied to the edge studs in order to study their effect on the in-plane behavior of the investigated LFTSWs. A marginal decrease in shear stiffness and shear resistance was observed due to the vertical load and bending moment applied. The decrease was more significant when applying the vertical loads due to the deformation, to which the staples were exposed, before applying the lateral load. Independent from level and combination of internal forces a ductile behavior was observed experimentally on the investigated LFTSWs, where the failure was governed by ductile displacements in the stapled connection between sheathing and framing.