Seismic performance of timber light-frame shear walls

Timber light-frame shear walls are a widespread structural system employed within platform framing buildings. Therefore, the analysis of the seismic performance of these structures deserves proper attention. In this regard, the limited inertia forces ensured by the high strength-to-density ratio of the timber and the energy dissipation ensured by sheathing-to-framing connections provide good earthquake resistance. The latter aspect for timber light-frame shear walls subjected to in-plane seismic loads is investigated in the present work. To this aim, an original parametric finite element model developed by means of the open-source software OpenSees is exploited to carry out an extensive sensitivity analysis. The equivalent viscous damping and the associated damping factor in use within the capacity spectrum method have been also assessed numerically. Finally, moving from the formulations provided by current codes and literature, a novel simplified analytical procedure is proposed herein to predict the backbone curve of a timber light-frame shear wall.