Structural Behaviour of Light-Frame Timber Shear-Walls with Diagonal board sheathing

As an alternative to wooden panels, diagonal boards sheathings can be used to provide adequate lateral stability of light-frame timber (LFT) shear-walls. Much more common in the past than the present, LFT shear-walls with diagonal boards (LFT-DB) have undergone a significant revival of use and interest, especially in Europe, due to an increasing attention to adhesive-free engineered wood products and to the development of locally supply chain of wood. The current study aims to establish a better understanding of the behaviour of typical European LFT-DBs through experimental and numerical investigations. Six full-scale shear-wall tests were conducted under monotonic and cyclic load protocols. A finite element numerical model was implemented to study the elastic internal force distribution of boards and wooden frame elements. The results showed that the mechanical behaviour of shear-walls with single layer of boards strongly depends on the lateral load direction. When diagonal boards act in tension, the failure mechanism is primarily related to the yielding of the sheathing-to-framing connections, whereas when diagonal boards act in compression, an early failure of the corner between the outer stud and the top plate is observed. An almost symmetric behaviour of the shear-wall with double-crossed layer was observed in the cyclic test with a failure mode related to the yielding of nails on both faces of the wall.