Midply Wood Shear Wall System: Concept and Performance in Static and Cyclic Testing

Abstract

This paper introduces a new concept in shear wall design. One ply of sheathing material is placed at the center of the wall between a series of pairs of studs and plates oriented in 90° rotated position relative to those in standard shear walls. The new wall design is called “midply” in reference to the location of the sheathing panel. Test results for midply walls under static and cyclic loading conditions are presented and compared with those presented for standard shear walls under similar loading conditions. In midply walls, nails connecting framing members to sheathing work in double shear in contrast to connections in standard shear walls, which work in single shear. This results in substantial improvements in the shear performance of midply walls. As verified by the test results presented herein, load-carrying capacity of midply walls is over three times that of comparable standard shear walls.