Resistance of Cross-Laminated Timber Shear Walls for Platform-Type Construction

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is gaining popularity in residential and nonresidential applications in the European and North American construction markets. For the adequate design of CLT shear walls, quantification of their lateral resistance is of paramount importance. In this paper, investigations with respect to the resistance of CLT shear walls for platform-type buildings under lateral loading are presented. Based on the possible kinematic motions of CLT shear walls under lateral loading (rocking or combined rocking and sliding), formulas were proposed to estimate the in-plane resistance for both single and coupled walls. Five different wall configurations were considered: (1) single walls with brackets only; (2) single walls with brackets and hold-downs; (3) coupled walls with brackets only; (4) coupled walls with brackets and 2-hold-downs; and (5) coupled walls with brackets and 4-hold-downs. A comparison of the proposed formulas against test results of single and coupled CLT shear walls is presented. With further validation, the proposed formulas to estimate the resistance of CLT shear walls could become a useful tool for engineers in the future design of CLT platform buildings.