Collapse testing and analysis of a light-frame wood garage wall

AbstractLight-frame wood (woodframe) buildings have been tested at full-scale sparingly around the world, primarily due to the cost associated with such testing and a general lack of facilities large enough to test at system level. The data from the tests that have been performed are used to help develop nonlinear time history analysis models that can predict the behavior of woodframe buildings during strong ground shaking. It is difficult to test buildings to the point of collapse because such tests can damage costly test equipment, i.e., the shake table. This paper presents the results of a dynamic collapse test on a light-frame wood garage wall and the results of a numerical model to simulate the wall behavior all the way to the collapse point. The tested wall was heavily damaged as a result of subjecting it to a ground motion recorded during the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Then, 85% of a near-fault ground motion recording from the Northridge earthquake was used, which immediately collapsed the test specimen...