Seismic Analysis of Woodframe Structures. II: Model Implementation and Verification

Abstract

This is the second of two companion papers on the seismic analysis of woodframe structures. In Part I, a simple numerical model was formulated to predict the dynamic characteristics, quasistatic pushover, and seismic response of woodframe buildings. This numerical model has been incorporated into the computer program SAWS (seismic analysis of woodframe structures). Here in Part II, attention turns to implementation and verification of the SAWS model. To this end, the predictive capabilities of the SAWS program are compared with experimental results obtained from recent shake table tests performed on a full-scale two-story woodframe house under the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project. It is shown that the SAWS computer program provides reasonably accurate estimates of the dynamic characteristics, quasistatic pushover, and seismic response of the test structure. Furthermore, the SAWS program requires a minimum amount of data input and provides a fast computational turnaround time in which to analyze a given structure. As a result, this simple numerical may be a useful structural analysis tool for practicing engineers and researchers involved in the seismic design and/or analysis of woodframe structures.