Experimental verification of analytical strength and deformation methods for single and multi-panel nailed CLT shear walls

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is becoming a feasible alternative as structural material for midand high-rise buildings. Although CLT walls are appropriate for resisting lateral loads from wind and earthquakes, the current provisions in the Canadian Standard for Engineering Design in Wood lack analytical expressions for estimating their resistance and deflection. In this thesis, the performance of nailed single and couple CLT shear walls is investigated by comparing UNBC test data with the strength and stiffness predictions using analytical proposals. Four methods are considered: Method A (Casagrande et al. 2017), considers the minimum strength value of the hold-down and the vertical fasteners; Method B (Shahnewaz et al. 2019), which accounts for the rocking resistance of all connectors; Method C (Masroor et al. 2020) which accounts for the bi-axial behaviour of connectors; and Method D (Nolet et al. 2019) which describes the elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour of CLT shear walls while neglecting the bi-axial behaviour of brackets. The best match for the elastic behaviour of the nailed shear walls was achieved using Method B, while Method C reasonably predicted the inelastic shear wall behaviour. With the validation against test results, designers should consider using either method depending on the design intentions. Future research should aim at either extending Method B (Shahnewaz et al. 2019) towards the inelastic behaviour or improving Method C (Masroor et al. 2020) in the elastic range.