Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of 15 tests from a study on the effects of different types of straps on the lateral resistance of wood shear walls without openings. The stud walls were built with oriented strand board (OSB) panels. Five types of straps were used to bind the stud walls to the base plates. In addition, the test variables were double sole base plates, anchor bolt spacing and different types of washers. The walls were 2.4 m (8 ft) in height and 3.6 m (12 ft) long with 40.5 cm (16 in.) stud spacing, used 8d ring shank nails and 100 mm/150 mm (4 in./6 in.) nail patterns for edge/field, which generally follows the Moore, Oklahoma’s Adopted New Building Code (2014). The results from the strapped walls were compared to the walls without straps. The test results illustrate the walls with Simpson LSTA9 showed the highest capacity compared to the walls with other types of straps. Overall, results indicate that the straps improve the wall capacity; moreover, the wall capacity improves significantly with the double base place and increases washer size in conjunction with the strapped wood.