Midply shear wall, which was originally developed by researchers at Forintek Canada Corp. (predecessor of FPInnovations) and the University of British Columbia, is a high-capacity wood-frame shear wall system that is suitable for high wind and seismic loadings. Its superior seismic performance was demonstrated in a full-scale earthquake simulation test of a 6-storey wood-frame building in Japan (Peietal.,2010). Midply shear wall, however, had limited applications due to its low resistance to vertical load and difficulty to accommodate electrical and plumbing services. For broader applications of Midply shearwall, these limitations needed to be addressed.
In collaboration with APA–The Engineered Wood Association and the American Wood Council (AWC), a new framing arrangement was designed to increase the vertical load resistance of Midply shearwalls and make it easier to accommodate electrical and plumbing services. Consequently, structural, fire and acoustic tests have been conducted to evaluate various performance attributes of Midply shear wall with the new framing configuration. This InfoNote provides a summary of the structural, fire and acoustic performance of Midply shearwalls from the tests.