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Experimental Studies on Single and Coupled Douglas-fir CLT Shear Walls with High-Capacity Connections

By Minghao Li, Ben Moerman, June 2023.

Download SWP-T169 (pdf)

Executive summary

As an engineered timber product, cross-laminated timber (CLT) is currently gaining popularity in New Zealand and globally. This two-year project aims to develop high-capacity Douglas-fir CLT shear wall structures that are suitable for multi-storey mass timber buildings constructed in high seismic countries like New Zealand. A total of seven Douglas-fir CLT shear wall specimens were cyclically tested to evaluate their strength, stiffness, ductility and hysteretic behaviour. The wall specimens consisted of six single cantilever walls and one coupled wall with steel link beams. The results showed all the wall specimens exhibited significantly higher strength and stiffness than conventional CLT shear walls in literature. In particular, the coupled wall with steel link beams and mixed angle screwed hold-downs achieved high capacity and high ductility. In comparison to similar cantilever CLT shear walls, the coupled wall exhibited 45% higher peak strength, dissipated 50% more energy, and experienced less degradation of energy dissipation. The coupled wall was also repaired and re-tested. The repaired wall showed comparable performance to the original wall, indicating the feasibility of the repair strategy developed by this study.

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