Performance of connection system used in lightweight glubam shear wall

Abstract

Abstract Industrial-produced laminated bamboo panel is a new type of eco-friendly material used for glubam structures in construction industry. This type of panel can be further cold-glued with different orientation combinations to form various types of glubam structural elements and to meet different structural and architectural requirements. The lightweight glubam frame structure is one of the popular forms of glubam structures which can be produced in factory and installed on site with few labor forces and transportation equipment, making it potentially possible to be widely used in urban or rural areas. Like the lightweight wood-frame structures, the governing structural element determining the lateral resistance capacity of lightweight glubam structures is the frame shear wall, as well as that the shear wall’s lateral resistance strength is determined through the metal connections used. Thus, this study is focused on the performance of connection system used in lightweight glubam shear walls made with thick strip ply-bamboo boards, the connection system includes panel-frame nail connections, frame-frame connections and hold-down devices, respectively. Yield moment and curves of nails used in lightweight glubam structures were experimentally obtained according to ASTM F1575 standard. The monotonic and cyclic loading tests of panel-frame connections and frame-frame connections with different nail connectors were performed following ASTM D1761 standard. Mechanical parameters (such as elastic stiffness ke, maximum force Fmax, ultimate displacement Δu) are obtained. Tests of hold-down connection with two different capacities under monotonic and cyclic loading are also presented in this research. A finite element model of lightweight shear wall based on metal connections information is validated through previous research in literature, and is used to predict the performance of lightweight frame shear walls with various combination of connections and studs, to find a suitable type of glubam or timber-glubam hybrid shear wall corresponding to certain load bearing and deformation requirements.