Thesis
Wood plastic composite sill plate for continuous anchorage of shear walls in light-frame wood structures
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2008
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102059
Abstract
Past research and post-disaster investigations have exposed a few shortcomings in the use of wood sill plates in light-frame wood shear walls. The first is the fact that uplift forces, caused by overturning resistance, induce cross-grain bending in sill plates due to forces from the sheathing-to-sill plate connectors lifting the edge of the sill plate. This bending along the line of anchor bolts often times results in splitting of the sill plate and loss of lateral resistance. The second is wood’s inherent property to decay when exposed to moisture and a sill plate’s highly exposed nature to moisture. Past studies have also shown that wood plastic composites (WPCs) can be utilized to reduce these problems and are a viable substitution for typical wood sill plates. In this thesis, a concept of continuous anchorage of a WPC sill plate to improve the performance of light-frame wood shear walls is pursued. This was accomplished by the modeling of a WPC sill plate which included a fin along the bottom edge that can be embedded in a concrete foundation instead of the use of anchor bolts. This embedment into the foundation of a structure will provide continuous anchorage of the shear wall. This thesis contains the development of a finite element model that is useful for investigating the behavior of a WPC sill plate that has been designed for continuous anchorage of light-frame wood shear walls. The model was verified using a slightly modified cross-section that was easily manufactured and tested. The resulting model indicates that the continuous anchorage concept is viable. Shear walls with continuous anchorage showed a doubling in strength over unrestrained shear walls built by current prescriptive methods, and are comparable in strength to shear walls with traditional overturning restraint.
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Details
- Title
- Wood plastic composite sill plate for continuous anchorage of shear walls in light-frame wood structures
- Creators
- Jason O'Dell
- Contributors
- J. Daniel Dolan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525137401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis