Medeling Wood/Frame shear walls with FEM?

[drile007]

Since I'm from Europe and there's no sign of any useful software which can handle Wood/Frame shear wall structures and follows Eurocode 8 rules (as far as I know...correct me if I'm wrong), I will try to model such systems with FEM (e.g. ETABS).
I decide to model shear wall with shell elements since other methods are much more time consuming. I was thinking to:
1) Use E and G from sheathing material (e.g. OSB)
2) I will use high stiffness reduction factors to suit:
[ul][li]metal-fastener slip[/li]
[li]anchorage shear and tension slip[/li]
[li]creep behavior[/li][/ul]

Any comments are highly appreciated!

 

[rscassar]

I think you are trying to overanalyse the problem by modelling a plywood shear wall in ETAB's. Apologies for not being productive towards this thread but I do not see any benfits which can be gained by analysing a plwood shear wall by FEM.

 

[abusementpark]

I agree with kikflip. I'm not sure what you really gain by modelling a wood shear wall using finite elements. Usually the distribution of load can be easily approximated by a flexible diaphragm. Also, there are rational procedures for calculating deflection of a wood shear wall.

 

[drile007]

Thank you for your replies,

but could you point me to some literature to these (flexible diaphragm) procedures since I'm familiar just with rigid diaphragm forces distribution.

 

[rscassar]

From this site you can download a design guide for plywood in which it has specific guidance for plywood shearwalls and diaphragms.

http://www.ewp.asn.au/library/index-design.php

There is a book by Farhad Nazim titled the Seismic design handbook which has a chapter specific to the seismic design of wood frames buildings.

Best of Luck.