Experimental and numerical investigation on withdrawal connectors usage for lateral resistance of timber shear walls structure

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a feasible option for mid-rise structures in the United States and Canada. United States building standards require that CLT be designed for seismic applications using alternative methods. CLT as a novel structural system is introduced in this paper, using experimental, nonlinear numerical model and kinematic formulation of CLT to examine the effects of models characteristics on CLT performance. In this study, finite element (FE) and kinematic model of CLT panels were constructed. For evaluating the preciseness of the FE model, test data of CLT panels was used. The mechanical characteristics of connections were used to estimate lateral resistances, which were then compared to experimental data. Thus, 4 out of 7 shear wall specimens included withdrawal connectors and one Ply-lam panel. A single panel was split in half in three of the seven shear wall examples. They were basically linked by 2 or 4 connections to make a single panel. The Ply-lam wall-to-floor connections had two or four connectors, and the vertical load was 0, 24 and 120 kN. Therefore, by using kinematic models. The tested data were 6.3–52.7% more than the predicted value. There was a 10% maximum error of maximum shear forces of panels in the finite element analysis which was considerably closer to the test findings. It indicates that the connector's behavior may be used to accurately anticipate the lateral resistance.