Dynamic characteristics of light-frame wood buildings

This paper deals with dynamic field testing of light-frame wood buildings with wood based shear walls. The primary objective of the investigation is to provide an estimate of the fundamental period of such buildings, through field testing and numerical modeling. An experimental program is established to perform ambient vibration testing on 41 light-frame wood buildings of both regular and irregular layouts, located in moderate to high seismic zones in different regions in Canada. The research objective is to develop a reliable method of estimating the building period of light-frame wood buildings and develop an accurate expression for building period estimate based on field testing and numerical modeling. The study found that significant scatter is observed in the measured data when plotted as a function of building height. Finite element (FE) models were developed and compared with the natural periods of the buildings with reasonable accuracy. Using the validated FE models to examine different commonly u...