Cyclic analysis of wood shear walls

A simple numerical model to predict the load-displacement response and energy dissipation characteristics of wood shear walls under general quasi-static cyclic loading is presented. In this model the shear wall is composed of three structural components: Rigid framing members, linear elastic sheathing panels, and nonlinear sheathing-to-framing connectors. The hysteric model for the sheating-to-framing connector takes account of pinching behavior and strength and stiffness degradation under cyclic loading. A robust displacement control solution strategy is utilized to predict the wall response under general cyclic loading protocols. The shear wall model has been incorporated into the computer program CASHEW (Cyclic Analysis of SHEar Walls). The predictive capabilities of this program are compared with monotonic and cyclic tests of full-scale wood shear walls. It is shown that this model can accurately predict the load-displacement response and energy dissipation characteristic of wood shear walls under general cyclic loading. As an application of the CASHEW program, a procedure is presented for calibrating a single degree-of-freedom system to predict the complete nonlinear dynamic response of shear walls under seismic loading.