The effect of combined use of plybamboo sheathings and self-tapping screws in enhancing wood-frame shear wall performance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Plybamboo panels are renewable and eco-friendly structural panels with high strength, good dimensional stability, and affordability, making them highly suitable for wood-frame construction. This study presents an experimental investigation of the wood-frame shear wall constructed with plybamboo-sheathing panels with self-tapping screws (STSs) subjected to monotonic and cyclic loadings. Performance parameters including shear strength, elastic shear modulus, ductility ratio, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation were evaluated. Results indicate that the combined use of plybamboo sheathings and STSs can substantially reduce failures due to the tearing of sheathing, fastener head pull-through, and fastener withdrawal. The plybamboo-sheathed wood-frame shear walls with STSs had over 1.8 times shear strength and 1.4 times ultimate displacement than those of comparable wood-frame shear walls with nails, respectively, maintaining over 80% of their maximum lateral load capacity at a drift level over 4%. Moreover, the influence of aspect ratio and screw spacing on the elastic shear modulus, shear strength, and stiffness degradation of the plybamboo-sheathed wood-frame shear walls with STSs are consistent with those for common wood-frame shear walls.