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Determination of failure mechanism of CLT shear walls subjected to seismic action

Motoi Yasumura, Shizuoka University

1. Introduction
CLT panel structures have been developed rapidly in Europe during these ten years. It has been
applied to medium rise condominiums and apartment houses as well as offices, school buildings, etc.
This structure may produce high performance against seismic action as well as permanent action
because of their high shear stiffness and capacity. In seismic design, the joints connecting CLT
panels to the surrounding boundaries such as hold-down connections dominate the mechanical
properties of the structure. Therefore it is very important to determine the failure mechanism of shear
walls for the seismic design of CLT structures. In this study, the failure mechanism of CLT shear
walls due to the failure of hold down connectors fastening wall panel to the foundation and that of
shear plate connecting two wall panels each other was determined by comparing the strength
distribution of these fasteners. The reversed cyclic lateral loading tests of CLT shear walls connected
with shear plates and hold-down connectors showed that the design applying the reliability index of
2 predicted quite well the failure mechanism of CLT shear wall.
2. Basic theory
Assuming a shear wall including of two CLT wall panels connected each other with screwed shear
plats (SP) and connected to the foundation with hold-down connectors (HD), the ultimate lateral
force FH is expressed as equation (1) to (3) if the withdrawal resistance of screws connecting CLT
panels to the sill and loading beam is neglected.

F ∙F ∙ T … 1 (In case the failure of HD precedes that of shear plates)


F ∙F ∙ S F … 2 (In case the failure of SP precedes that of HD with soft beam)


F ∙F ∙ S … 3 (In case the failure of SP precedes that of HD with rigid beam)

Where, FH1, FH2, FH3: lateral forces corresponding to each failure mode, Fv = vertical loads applied to each panel,
h=height of panel, b0 = length of a CLT panel, be = effective length of CLT panel, T= tensile strength of HD, S =
shear strength of SP.
The condition where the failure of HD precedes that of SP is expressed as equations (4) to (7) when the
normal distribution is assumed.
μ
Z F F … 4 μ 0 … 5 σ σ σ … 6 β … 7
σ

The condition where the failure of SP precedes the failure of HD is expressed as equations (8) to (11)
when the normal distribution is assumed.
μ
Z F F … 8 μ 0 … 9 σ σ σ … 10 β … 11
σ
Zij = performance function, μ , σ = average and standard deviation, β = reliability index.
The average and standard deviation of HD and SP were determined from the tensile and shear tests
of HD and SP, and the number of screws used for SP was determined as 13 and 7 respectively for the
failure precedence of HD with 8 screws and SP with vertical loads of 30kN in total.
3. Lateral loading test of CLT shear walls
Reversed cyclic lateral loading tests were conducted with CLT shear walls. Specimens were
designed to have the failure mechanism either by HD or SP. Vertical loads of 30kN in total were
applied. Fig.1 shows the example of load-displacement relation with the vertical load of 30kN, and
Fig.2 shows the deformation of panels at the horizontal displacement of 100mm. These results show
the design proposed in this study applying the reliability index of 2 predicted well the failure
mechanism of CLT shear wall.

60

40

20
Load(kN)

‐20

‐40
T8S13V15
‐60
‐150 ‐100 ‐50 0 50 100 150
Displacement(mm)
Fig.1 Load-displacement relation (13 (left) and 7 (right) screws on shear plates)

FV FV FV
FV
FH FH

SP SP
h
SP be SP

HD HD HD HD

b0 b0

Fig 2 Deformation of each panel with the failure mechanism of HD (left) and SP (right) at 1/30rad.

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