This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the lateral loading behavior of glulam framemidply hybrid lateral systems. Such systems are composed of glulam post-and-beam frames and infill midply shear walls. Reversed cyclic tests of six full-scale glulam frame-midply hybrid systems and two bare post-and-beam frames were conducted. The initial lateral stiffness, lateral load-carrying capacity, ductility and hysteresis characteristics of the hybrid systems were investigated. The load sharing mechanism between the outer frame and the infill midply subsystems was evaluated. Test results show that the installation of the infill midply shear walls can bring great improvements in the lateral resistance and the energy dissipation to the bare post-and-beam frames. The outer post-and-beam frames are basically in elastic range and can effectively restrain the infill midply shear walls from suffering further severe damages. For this reason, the post-peak lateral resistances of the hybrid systems can keep no less than 70% of their own load-carrying capacities within 4.41% drift ratio, and there is no need to install holddown connectors in the infill midply shear walls. The load-carrying capacity of frame-midply hybrid lateral system is at least 1.5 times that of comparable frame infilled with standard wood-frame shear wall.

Introduction

Timber building is well known as the favorable characteristics of environment-friendliness, easy assembly and excellent seismic performance. With the increase of population and the limitation of land resources, conventional low-rise wood-frame constructions become increasingly unsuited in the urban areas, and correspondingly, mid- and high-rise timber buildings have been attracting more and more attention from researchers and engineers. Timber Frame 2000 program initiated by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) of the U.K. was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of multistory timber buildings through a series of tests on a full-scale six-story residential building [1,2]. In 1999, a five-year national project was promoted in Japan to develop high-performance timber-based composite members and hybrid structures [3–۵]. The SOFIE research project was conducted in Italy to analyze a 7-story building built with cross laminated timber (CLT) panels, considering every single aspect of the building behavior, such as static, fire, acoustic, thermal and, particularly, seismic performance [6–۸].