Interpretation of Test Data on Drywall and Stucco Sheathed Woodframe Shear Walls

Abstract eng:
A wealth of data has become available since 2001 about the performance of drywall and stucco sheathed woodframe walls under cyclic loading. Drywall and stucco are the only lateral force resisting systems in many existing residential buildings in the United States, especially single-family homes built in the 1970s and earlier. Plywood sheathing is minimal or non-existing, and wall finishes provide the shear strength in these light-frame buildings. This paper takes a closer look at the actual laboratory cycle by cycle data from CoLA-UCI (City of Los Angeles – University of California, Irvine) and CUREE-Caltech woodframe test programs, and uses them to clarify the meaning of significant damage as it relates to gypsum sheathed shear walls. This paper can be viewed as an extension of the valuable information in the test program reports by the original authors, with a focus on the interpretation and use of the test data for the evaluation of damage to existing woodframe buildings. Interpretation of the results is useful considering the large stock of these existing buildings that are still susceptible to damage from new events or cumulative damage to their currently partially repaired states. Analysis of the data considers the strength and stiffness loss observed between the initial and later cycles when the wall is loaded to a certain displacement. A loss of strength and stiffness does occur starting at small displacements. Thus, the paper can be valuable to others working on performance based design development. The paper also considers the strength and stiffness recovery of repaired walls.

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