Validation of seismic design parameters for wood-frame shearwall systems

A methodology for assessment of seismic design parameters for a wood-frame shearwall system is developed, consisting of a test program of shearwalls and the application of nonlinear time history analyses to a four-storey wood-frame building that was designed to resist the seismic requirements for Vancouver, British Columbia. Analyses employed 22 selected earthquake accelerograms that were scaled upwards until an ultimate peak ground acceleration (A(u)) was reached where the shearwall reached a "near-collapse" state. The 22 values of A(u) were found to be greater than the "design" peak ground acceleration, indicating the adequacy of the current design procedures for the particular shearwalls investigated. The influence of gypsum wallboard on the behaviour of the shearwalls was also evaluated, and a new force modification factor "R" for walls composed of a mixture of wood-based and gypsum panels was proposed. The effect of flexibility of floor diaphragms was considered separately for a symmetric building and was found to have 5-30% reduction on the A(u) values obtained for the rigid diaphragm case.