Lateral behavior of glued-laminated timber frame infilled with light-wooden-frame wall hybrid system: Experimental and numerical analysis

Abstract In this paper, experimental and numerical methodologies are used to study the lateral behaviors of glued-laminated timber (GLT) frame infilled with light-wooden-frame (LWF) wall hybrid system. Four specimens with 1:1.5 scale were designed to research the seismic performance under lateral cyclic loading, and the contribution of the LWF infill wall to the lateral structural systems, including opening size and type (door, window and without opening). The failure modes, hysteresis characteristics, lateral stiffness, energy dissipation, and load capacities of the GLT frame infilled with LWF wall systems were investigated. This paper focuses on collaborative work mechanism and lateral load sharing effect between GLT frame and infilled LWF wall and defined elastic and elastic–plastic drift ratios of the system, providing the control method for this structural hybrid system. In addition, numerical analysis methods are used to investigate the influence of wall opening size, location and type on lateral load and stiffness by 46 finite element (FE) models. The experimental results show that infilled LWF walls can provide a significant increase in the load capacities and initial lateral stiffness of GLT frame. The infilled LWF walls were very effective that it can absorb more than 70% lateral load in the initial loading stages. The numerical results show that the height and width of window & door infilled wall have a great influence on the structure lateral response, and the lateral load and stiffness increase to more than 2 times when the thickness of wall OSB panel increases from 6 mm to 16 mm.