In this study, the lateral resistances of mass timber shear walls were investigated for seismic design. The lateral resistances were predicted by kinematic models with mechanical properties of connectors, and compared with experimental data. Four out of 7 shear wall specimens consisted of a single Ply-lam panel and withdrawal-type connectors. Three out of 7 shear wall specimens consisted of two panels made by dividing a single panel in half. The divided panels were connected by 2 or 4 connectors like a single panel before being divided. The applied vertical load was 0, 24, or 120 kN, and the number of connectors for connecting the Ply-lam wall-to-floor was 2 or 4. As a result, the tested data were 6.3 to 52.7% higher than the predicted value by kinematic models, and it means that the lateral resistance can be designed by the behavior of the connector, and the prediction will be safe. The effects of wall-to-wall connectors, wall-to-floor connectors and vertical loads on the shear wall were analyzed with the experimental data.
A cross-laminated timber (CLT) wall plays the role of resisting shear stress induced by lateral forces as well as vertical load. Due to the press size, CLT panels have a limitation in size. To minimize the initial investment, some glulam manufactures wanted to make a shear wall element with small-size CLT panels and panel-to-panel connections and wanted to know whether the shear wall would have equivalent shear performance with the wall made of a single CLT panel. In this study, this was investigated by experiments and kinematic model analysis. Two shear walls made of small CLT panels were tested. The model showed a good agreement with test results in the envelope curve. Even though the shear walls were made of small panels, the global peak load did not decrease significantly compared with the wall made of a single CLT panel, but the global displacement showed a large increase. From this analysis, it was concluded that the shear wall can be designed with small CLT panels, but displacement should be designed carefully.
