Wood Shear Wall Performance: Influence of Sheathing Nail Head Geometry

Abstract

Wood shear wall performance is affected by the materials used for construction including the sheathing fasteners. The model building codes permit different fasteners for sheathing attachment in terms of diameter and length. In general, the nail head geometry is designated in the fastener schedule footnotes by terminology, such as “common,” “sinker,” “casing,” or “finish.” Power-driven nails are collated and the heads are formed to facilitate collation, so the heads may be flat and round with full round geometries or the flat round head may be clipped or notched. The European Yield Limit equations of the National Design Specification assume a smooth round dowel with no head, which leaves the engineering community without a rational basis for specification of head geometry requirements for shear wall construction. To address this issue, three types of nails distinguished by different head geometries were used in shear wall tests to investigate the potential effects of sheathing nail head geometry on shear w...