Two-dimensional numerical modeling of light-frame wood structures for seismic collapse assessment

Abstract eng:
The research work presented in this paper describes the numerical modeling of light-frame wood structures. This type of low-rise residential buildings is widely used across North America and incorporates sheathed woodframe shear walls as a lateral load-resisting system. The numerical model introduced attempts to address the dynamic response of twodimensional woodframe buildings under unidirectional horizontal and vertical earthquake shaking, by effectively simulating the primary modes of deformation that have been observed and identified in recent three-dimensional shake table tests of a full-scale two-story lightframe wood townhouse building. A computer program is being developed that formulates a numerical two-dimensional building model at the nail level, yet maintains simplicity in the model preparation and can accommodate various structural configurations. The element library includes a number of nonlinear springs that capture the load-deformation characteristics of wood connections and vertical load-transferring devices up to complete failure, as well as contact/separation phenomena between framing members. A linear beam element is utilized for modeling the wood framing since the individual frame members do remain elastic and the nonlinear behavior is concentrated in the sheathing-to-framing and the framing-toframing connections. A corotational formulation is employed to solve the equilibrium equations in the deformed configuration accounting for large rotations and large displacements associated with rigid body motion, geometric nonlinearity, as well as P-Δ effects at the system level. The preliminary analyses of one-story woodframe buildings indicate that the proposed model is capable of capturing more realistic load paths in the shear walls and the response is affected by their height-to-width ratio, the simulated gravity loads and the anchoring devices installed on the structure.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket