Shear Walls in a Timber Structure

[CorporalToe]

Hello I am doing a design project for school. I am designing an office building, all the structural components have to be made from wood. I plan to design CLT shear walls for the LFRS, and I want to use conventional 2x4 stud framing for the reminder of the exterior walls to only carry vertical loads.

My concern is that the the framed walls will have sheathing and so will have come stiffness, is it alright to neglect the stiffness and only design the building assuming all the lateral load will be transferred to the CLT shear walls I design?

 

[phamENG]

Do CLT or do conventional light frame. Mixing them will be complicated and overly expensive.

 

[jayrod12]

Agreed with phamENG. I would only use CLT if it is an architectural design decision, they are generally expensive. Wood panel shear walls are a common thing.

 

[driftLimiter]

What concerns you about having additional stiffness?

I think its fairly routine to neglect the contribution (strength and stiffness) of sheathed walls.

If the building is seismic and the Cs factor is calculated at the peak of the Sds curve, and you design and detail your MLFRS for sufficient strength and stiffness then I don't really see the harm in the building becoming more stiff.

I think CLT for shear will be quite a bit stiffer than traditional wood framed walls, but if your trying for really slender CLT piers, then you would want to verify that these are stiff enough to take the load from the 'non-shear' walls.