Testing and Acceptance Conditions for Light-Frame Shear Wall Strengthening Using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Composite Systems in Buildings Assigned to High Seismic Design Categories

摘要

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, many California residential buildings utilized gypsum wallboard as the main lateral force-resisting element. However, current building codes limit the use of gypsum wallboard in building construction as a lateral force-resisting system in areas of high seismicity. Therefore, many existing light-frame buildings, as they are evaluated for compliance with current codes during renovation or remodeling work, are being found structurally deficient. At present, the most prevalent repair method to show compliance with current building codes is to replace gypsum shear walls with conventional plywood or OSB (oriented strand board) shear walls. However, this is an expensive retrofitting method and may require partial or full closure of the building during construction. A newly introduced method which enables substandard light-frame walls to be used as the lateral force-resisting system in residential buildings is the application of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate. In order to have a means to show that this new strengthening technique with GFRP can be considered to be an acceptable alternative to code-specified methods, the ICC-ES Acceptance Criteria for Enhanced Light-frame Shear Walls Using Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Composite Systems (AC416) has been developed. This paper explains how AC416 may be used to qualify GFRP strengthening of existing light-frame shear walls in buildings assigned to high Seismic Design Categories (SDCs).