Lateral Behavior of Light Wood-Frame Shear Walls with Gypsum Wall Board

Gypsum wallboards (GWB) are widely used in light wood-frame construction, and their presence has a significant effect on the strength, stiffness and ductility of such structures even if they are not accounted for as structural elements in design. The research described herein aims to establish a better understanding of the behavior of shear walls sheathed with Type-X gypsum wallboards and investigates whether the behavior of such walls can be predicted through the use of component inputs obtained from testing. Full-scale Type-X GWB sheathed shear walls were tested under reversed cyclic loading to investigate the effect of fastening parameters, such as fastener type, spacing at panel edges, and panel edge distance. The study found that the fastener panel edge distance did not have an impact on the response of the shear walls within the range of 9-19mm. Shear walls with fastener spacing at the panel edge not permitted in the design standard (50mm) experienced relative reduced capacity and brittle failure mode compared to a wall with a fastener spacing of 150mm. It was also found that the capacity of shear walls sheathed with Type-X GWB could be predicted by considering the joint level capacity while accounting for the number of joints at panel edges as long as the failure of the shear walls is governed by panel-to-framing joints. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.