Experimental study of lateral load resistance of unclassified timber walls

Abstract

Wood is used in many countries as a building material for low and high level constructions because this material has an excellent physical properties and environmentally friendly. Timber walls are the structural system that designed for purpose of resisting lateral loads and transmitting these forces to the foundations in a ductile behavior. According to the European Standard, the timber shear wall consists of timber frame and sheathing board connected together by fasteners. The sheathing board can be made from different materials such as Gypsum, Plywood, Fibre board and Oriented Strand Board (OSB). This paper is mainly focusing on mechanical behavior of unclassified timber walls under lateral loading (i.e. seismic and wind loads). Unclassified wooden planks have been used to construct the wall unit with three layers for each wall in cross perpendicular planks form. In this research an experimental study of timber walls were investigated in order to determine the lateral load resistance. This work is compared to (OSB) panels. An analytical modelling for the cross plank wall has been studied to investigate the behavior of this wall under the horizontal forces. Comparison between the theoretical modelling and the experimental results have been made for cross plank walls, on the other hand, a comparison between the Eurocode 5 calculations and experimental studies has been studied for (OSB) panels. Based on the data and results obtained from the experimental tests, this study confirms that the cross plank walls have more horizontal strength and rigidity than (OSB).