Interpretation of experimental investigations on framed timber shear walls using numerical investigations of Daniels Systems

Framed timber shear walls (FTSW) represent a widely used construction technique. They can be constructed with one-or two-sided sheathing. For the design, reduction factors are required as additional stresses are present in the sheathing panels which are not taken into account in the shear field model, which serves as the basis in design standards such as Eurocode 5. Based on recent experimental studies such factors have been developed empirically. However, a theoretical explanation is needed for the smaller reduction factors k p,model of two-sided sheathing compared to one-sided sheathing of FTSW. In this study, the theoretical Daniels System was selected and numerical investigations using this model were carried out to provide a possible explanation for the observed results. These numerical results were used to derive the expected peak force of two-side sheathed FTSW based on the experimental results of one-side sheathed FTSW. The results show that the model properties can indeed provide an explanation for the reduced reduction factors found by the experimental studies on FTSW. Thus, the reduction factor k p,model can be determined from one-side sheathed FTSW alone.