State of the Art: Seismic Behavior of Wood-Frame Residential Structures

Abstract

There are about 80 million single-family dwellings (SFDs) in the United States, predominantly of wood-frame construction. Of these, 68% are owner-occupied. A home is typically the largest single investment of a family, and is often not covered by earthquake insurance, even where it is available. Of all the houses in America, 50% were built before 1974, and 76% built before 1990. Most wood-frame SFDs (WFSFDs) were built to prescriptive code provisions before seismic requirements were introduced. After the introduction of seismic design requirements, the importance of examining structures as an assembly of connected elements became more common. Much of the seismic design information on SFD construction is based on educated opinion or limited research. This review examines research that can be applied to WFSFD seismic analysis and the design and retrofit of existing WFSFDs. The review is intended to cover most readily available papers published in major U.S. journals and at major conferences in the area of seismic modeling, testing and evaluation. The state of the art is reviewed of seismic experimentation and seismic evaluation, and observations and recommendations are provided for future research.