Wood-Plastic Composite Sill Plate for Continuous Anchorage of Shear Walls in Light-Frame Wood Structures.

摘要

Past research and post-disaster investigations have exposed a few shortcomings in the use of wood sill plates in light-frame wood shear walls. The first is the fact that uplift forces, caused by overturning resistance, induce cross-grain bending in sill plates due to forces from the sheathing-to-sill plate connectors lifting the edge of the sill plate. This bending along the line of anchor bolts often times results in splitting of the sill plate and loss of lateral resistance. The second is wood's inherent property to decay when exposed to moisture and a sill plate's highly exposed nature to moisture. Past studies have also shown that wood plastic composites (WPCs) can be utilized to reduce these problems and are a viable substitution for typical wood sill plates. In this thesis, a concept of continuous anchorage of a WPC sill plate to improve the performance of light-frame wood shear walls is pursued.