wood shear wall

[jonathanwilkins]

When designing shear walls in beach houses, the ocean side is almost always full of windows & doors. Making the numbers work is not too big of a problem, I'm worried, though, that when there's no panels meeting the IBCs 3.5-1 height to width ratio, that the panel will not be able to develop the shear resistance. This seems to only be a prescriptive restriction, but I cannot find any books, tech bulletins, etc. that address wood alternatives. (Steel would work but I'd only get one job in my career). Does anyone have any resources or advise? These houses are very common and being new to engineering them, I'm having a tough time. Thanks for your help.

 

[waldo459]

Simpson has several strong wall products that are code approved for ratios up to 9:1.

 

[boo1]

See post for FEMA 55 download from Slideruleera

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=174585

 

[whyun]

Strong wall is a good product for short panels. I believe they come in OSB type and ribbed sheet metal type. Alternately, if there are piers between windows you can consider perforated shear wall method using straps along the window header and sill.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

APA Wood has a portal frame made with Microlams that also can be quite helpful - esp at garage front walls and I am sure could be adapted.

 

[jonathanwilkins]

Thanks, especially the FEMA documents. I'll look over those and see what I can learn. I'll also look over the portal frames w/ microlams. Simpson panels aren't an option in this case b/c this is a 3rd floor application; Simpson has only rated their walls for 2nd floor usage.

In reference to using the perforated option. As in my original post, I can make this "work," the numbers aren't too bad, especially by sheathing inside and out of the wall. I just can't find any reports about using wood shear panels (except Simpson and others), that have aspect ratio's greater than 3.5:1. I'm having trouble convincing myself that this is okay.

Thanks again.

 

[AAHstruct]

If I understand your question correctly, you can go to the following website to find technical papers on perforated shear wall testing:

http://www.awc.org/Publications/download.html

Towards the bottom under the "Technical Articles and Papers by Others" heading is a section for Shear Walls with lots of papers for perforated shear wall testing.

Also, I'm a little confused that you mention using wood shear panels with an aspect ratio greater than 3.5:1, because shear wall aspect ratios greater than 3.5:1 are never allowed. I hope that you mean that your full height wall segment aspect ratio is greater than 3.5:1, whereas your wall pier aspect ratio is less than or equal to 3.5:1 in your perforated shear wall. It's my understanding that the force transfer (blocking and strapping) around the openings is the key to make the perforated shear wall act as a unit as opposed to the individual wall segments.

 

[LGARG]

hi, i think that you coold use a shearwall with transfer arround opening or maybe a hardyframe panel at that line