Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1996

Publication Title

Journal of Structural Engineering

Abstract

In the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, extensive field investigations revealed damage in wood frame construction in the form of splitting of the 2 X 4 or 2 X 6 wood sill plates along the line of anchor bolts that typically connect shear walls to the masonry or concrete foundation. Due to the severity of such brittle failures, the city of Los Angeles has recently restricted the use of 2X dimension lumber in sill plates and requires the use of 3X dimension lumber. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the performance of 2X dimension lumber sill plate connections at the yield and ultimate limit states during incremental quasi-static reversed cyclic loading and suggests possible cost-effective retrofit strategies for their improved seismic performance without having to increase the sill plate thickness. Proposed retrofit strategies are based on providing confinement to the sill plate using metal reinforcing straps and reinforcing clamps to increase the deformation capability and energy dissipation capacity of the connection, while maintaining substantial levels of connection strengths.

Volume

122

Issue

11

First Page

1357

Last Page

1363

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1996)122:11(1357)

Comments

Originally published in the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 122(11):1357-1363.

Download

Share

COinS