1

Design Solutions for Wood-Frame Multi-Story Buildings Resisting Uplift and Lateral Forces
By Randy Shackelford, P.E. and Steve Pryor, P.E., S.E., Simpson Strong-Tie Published in the August 2007 issue of Construction Specifier magazine Due in part to the more liberal height and area restrictions of the International Building Code (IBC), the use of wood-framed Type V construction for mid-rise multi-family and mixed-use buildings has greatly increased in recent years. Building with wood on multi-story projects has several advantages. Wood framing and sheathing are readily available and economical. There are also countless construction crews with the necessary skills to construct wood-frame buildings. Additionally, the use of wood framing results in a clear load path easily understood by both designers and contractors. With the prevalence of wood-frame multi-story buildings, however, it is important designers understand how these structures must resist high wind forces. Some of the fastest growing markets in the United States are areas along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard, which are more susceptible to hurricanes and high wind events. Understanding high wind forces Regardless of the type of construction, buildings are subjected to two basic types of loads under high winds. Uplift loads result from air flowing over the roof, causing a suction force. Lateral loads result from wind blowing on the windward wall, as well as wind blowing past the leeward wall. These two lateral forces act in the same direction and combine to create a force that tries to push the building over or slide it in the direction of the wind. Lateral loads can also result from wind blowing on a steep pitched roof. These loads and the requirements for their application are described in the IBC, or in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ASCE 7, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures. In fact, with the removal of the simplified wind loading requirements from the 2006 IBC, ASCE 7 is now the single source for designers in calculating wind loads on a structure. (The wind loading section of the 2006 IBC only includes such basic information as wind speed maps, exposure classification, opening protection requirements and some roofing requirements.) When designing based on the 2006 IBC, wind loads must be established using ASCE 705. Within this reference document, there are different options for determining wind loads.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

The simplified procedure Method 1 is very similar to the simplified procedure contained in the 2003 IBC. The simplified procedure can be used on simple diaphragm buildings that have a mean roof height less than both 18.2 m (60 ft) and the least horizontal dimension of the structure. The structures must be regular-shaped, having an approximately symmetrical crosssection with either a flat roof or a gable or hip roof with a roof slope 45 degrees, and be enclosed as it relates to the wind-borne debris requirements. The analytical procedure Within Method 2, there are two sets of requirementsthe low-rise procedure, and the procedure for buildings of all heights. Building size and construction type will determine which of these methods is applicable. The wind tunnel procedure The final method for determining wind loads in ASCE 7 is the use of a wind tunnel. This is typically not cost-effective for all but the largest of buildings. Design guidance Although wind loading information has been removed from IBC, there is still design guidance given in Chapter 16. Section 1604.4 in the code describes the extent of analysis required, by stating:
Any system or method of construction to be used shall be based on a rational analysis in accordance with well-established principles of mechanics. Such analysis shall result in a system that provides a complete load path capable of transferring loads from their point of origin to the load resisting elements Every structure shall be designed to resist the overturning effects caused by the lateral forces specified in this chapter.

In large, multi-story wood-frame construction, the shear forces can become quite high, especially on the lower stories. This is intensified by the large number of openings for windows and doors that building owners often demand. When wood shear walls are loaded, they must resist both shear and overturning forces. Shear force Shear force must be transferred from the top of the wall to the bottom. It is resisted by nailing panels at their edges to the wall framing (reduced nailing at the panel interior is also provided to resist panel buckling and wind suction loads). By varying the nailing and panel thickness, different levels of shear resistance can be achieved.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

The amount of shear in each panel depends on the wind speed, exposure, building height (and size in the perpendicular direction), and the amount of sheathing on the shear wall. The more sheathing on the wall, the less each panel has to work. Since current plans often require many openings in the walls, there is less and less sheathing to act as shear walls, so each panel tends to have to resist more force. Tips for shear wall specification 1. The designer should take advantage of shear wall capacity increases. IBC permits the shear wall shear capacities listed in Table 2306.4.1 to be increased by 40 percent for wind design. 2. More nails can be used to achieve higher capacities. In other words, the fastener spacing should be decreased at panel edges before one opts to increase the panel thickness. This is a more economical option, and thinner panels tend to be more readily available. 3. If possible, sheathing grade should be specified. Sheathing-grade wood structural panels are more plentiful than Structural I grade. If higher capacity is needed, nail spacing should be first decreased, followed by an increase in thickness. (Structural I sheathing should be seen as a last resort.) 4. Framing species must be specified for highest shear values. Allowable shear capacities listed in Table 2306.4.1 are for wood species having a specific gravity of 0.50 and higher (Douglas Fir-Larch and Southern Pine). Since most other common framing species have a lower specific gravity, the capacity must be reduced. Southern Pine or Douglas Fir-Larch framing (plates and studs) should be specified if the tabulated shear capacities are required. 5. If necessary, wood structural panel capacity can be combined with gypsum capacity. For wind design, IBC permits the capacity of the wood structural panels on one side of a shear wall to be added to the capacity of gypsum board on the opposite face of the shear wall. This option should only be used when the designer is confident the gypsum board will not get wet or is water-resistant. Additionally, the fastener type and spacing for the gypsum shear wall must be specified. One should be wary of using this combination when shear wall aspect ratios exceed 1:1. As the aspect ratio gets higher, the deflection of the shear wall under the increased allowable loads for wind can render the wall ineffective for load sharing with gypsum interior sheathing.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

6. Staples should be avoided in high wind areas. Staples are harder to place correctly so that both legs penetrate into framing. They tend to also have a less corrosion-resistant finish since they are thinner than nails. 7. Larger anchor bolts should be employed at the sill plate. If high shear forces result in close spacing of 12.7-mm (1/2-in.) anchor bolts, anchor bolt size should be increased to 15.9 mm (5/8 in.), rather than spacing smaller anchor bolts closer together. The 5/8-in. anchor bolts have almost 50 percent higher shear capacity than their 1/2-in. counterparts. 8. On multi-story buildings, a continuous tie-down system, tied off at every floor, should be used to achieve economies in rod sizing, as well as decreased deflections. 9. Compression, as well as tension forces, must be considered at edges of shear walls. Use of a holdown system is understood to resist overturning of shear walls. In a shear wall, the edge opposite the holdown will be under compression, and this force can exceed the overturning force due to dead load in the wall.

Overturning force Overturning force is the tendency for a wood panel to tip over (overturn) when shear force is applied. Overturning is resisted by anchoring the panels end to the foundation. These forces depend on the amount of shear in the panel, the shear wall aspect ratio, and any uplift from shear walls above. Again, as the shear forces increase due to modern wall configurations, the overturning force also increases.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

Figure 1 Figure 1 shows a simplified example of how the shear and overturning forces increase from the upper stories to the lower stories. Each floor must carry not only the shear and overturning from that particular level, but also the shear and overturning from all the walls above. This particular example shows extreme differences, since the shear from wind on the roof was neglected, but it does illustrate the general principles. In this four-story application, the shear on the lowest story is seven times the shear at the roof level, and the overturning force at the lowest floor is 16 times that at the top floor level. It is important to keep in mind this is a greatly simplified example, since it does not consider the reduction in overturning from dead load, or the increase in overturning due to the holdown anchor not being located at the actual edge of the shear wall.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

Traditional holdown methods In wood frame construction, shear wall overturning is resisted by hardware known as holdowns. The goal is to anchor the edge of the shear wall so it doesnt lift up, limiting the horizontal wall movement, or deflection. The allowable wall deflection is specified in the building code for seismic resistant construction, and is typically not permitted to be more than 0.025 times the wall height for residential structures. The code requires structural systems to be designed to limit deflections and lateral drift, but there are currently no deflection limits for wind-induced in-plane shear deformations. With the building owner, it is prudent for designers to evaluate acceptable levels of architectural damage and user discomfort, and to limit the lateral drifts of shear walls when loaded during a wind event. Designing shear walls with limited anchorage deflection is one way to reduce wall lateral drift. In one-story buildings, the holdown is often attached directly to a post, which then connects to the foundation with an anchor bolt. Straps embedded into the foundation and then attached to the post above are another popular solution (Figure 2).

Figure 2 For multi-story buildings, the traditional way to anchor an upper story shear wall against overturning has been to install two holdown anchors (one on the upper story studs and the other inverted on the lower story studs), which are then connected with a threaded rod through the floor. This floor-to-floor holdown system effectively transfers the overturning force from the upper story to the one below. For upper-story shear walls

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

where the overturning force does not exceed 17,793 to 22,241 N (4000 to 5000 lb), a strap from the upper story studs to the lower story studs can be a cost-effective option (Figure 3).

Figure 3 For typical multi-story applications as described above, the holdown at each floor level must resist the overturning at that level, plus the overturning from the shear walls above. Floor-to-floor holdown systems generally work well for structures three stories and under. For higher buildings, it is possible for holdown forces at the lower floors to exceed the capacity of readily available holdown anchors. Continuous tie-down systems Continuous tie-down systems have evolved as a cost-effective solution for buildings that have these very high overturning forces. In this type of system, the overturning force is collected in a single continuous rod. Continuous tie-down systems use steel tension elements such as threaded rods up to 28.6 mm (1 in.) in diameter or more, sometimes from high strength steel, to resist overturning forces in excess of 177,929 N (40,000 lb). This rod is then anchored to the foundation. One type of continuous tie-down system is a simple and cost-reducing variation of the holdown system. It uses a continuous rod from the foundation to the upper most

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

holdown. Every holdown is tied into the rod. At each level, the anchor rod can be sized for overturning force above that level, but the holdown can be designed for the overturning force at that level only. As the force in the rod is reduced in upper stories, a reducing coupler nut may be used to facilitate smaller rods in these locations (Figure 4).

Figure 4 In a more common type of continuous tie-down system, overturning forces are resisted by holding down the end post top(s) in the shear wall through bearing from above. (This is instead of holding down the bottom of the post with a directly attached holdown.) The overturning uplift from each floor is then continuously and cumulatively collected in the continuous tie-down element, usually a steel rod or cable, by bolting it to a large plate washer that then restrains the surface above the wall (Figure 5).

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

Figure 5 Skipping floors As previously described, each story of a multi-story shear wall has had direct engagement with the overturning restraint system and has thus been tied-off at each story. With continuous tie-down systems, there is the temptation to not tie-off each story. Instead, some may skip stories or even just run a rod or cable from the foundation all the way to the roof, employing a single point of bearing to resist all the overturning in the stacked multi-story shear wall. However, skipping stories can have very negative consequences on structural performance (Figure 6).

Figure 6

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

10

When stories are skipped, the force in the continuous tie-down element is constant over the entire height of the skipped areait does not reduce in the upper stories as described earlier. Since the continuous tie-down element will stretch under load, having a higher load over a longer element length leads to increased deflection both vertically in the tie-down element/posts/floors and laterally in the shear wall system as a whole. Each shear wall looking for overturning resistance pushes up until it finds the continuous tie-down system. Consequently, all the vertical movement due to rod stretch and wood compression accumulates at the bottom of the posts in the lowest story of the group tied together through skipping. This can lead to early failure of the nailing at the lowest level shear wall at the bottom of the shear panel where it is nailed to the sill plate, thus compromising the entire assemblys structural integrity. While this effect is easy to rationalize through calculations and engineering mechanics, this behavior has also been observed in full-scale tests.

Figure 7 Figure 7 shows testing performed at a manufacturers large-scale structural engineering research facility. In this particular test, a three-story tall shear wall assembly was not tied off at each floor level. The picture shows the broken studs in the first story. When the sheathing-to-sill plate nailing fails due to too much post uplift, the only load path left

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

11

to transfer the shear in the sheathing to the foundation is through weak axis bending of the studs. The failure of the sheathing nailing rapidly progresses up the studs through all field and vertical edge nailing until the distance through which the shear must travel down the stud to the sill plate becomes too great for the stud to handle. Another issue to consider with continuous tie-down systems is wood shrinkage, which can lead to gaps forming between the structure and the restraint points of the continuous tie-down system. To compensate for this, manufacturers offer some form of shrinkage compensation device (Figure 8).

Figure 8 Continuous load path As illustrated in this article, a complete load path for resisting horizontal wind loads is made up of a system of sheathing, nailing, framing, holdown anchors, and shear anchors at the bottom of the wall. This system acts together to transfer the shear forces to the foundation. In the same way, a complete system of framing and connectors is used to transfer the uplift loads from the top of the wall to the foundation. Just as the overturning resisting

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

12

system must be designed from the top of the building working down toward the foundation, so is the uplift resisting system. First, the uplift loads on the roof-to-wall connection must be determined. This will involve using either the simplified or analytical procedure of ASCE 7. These loads are then used in an analysis of the roof framing system to determine the magnitude of the uplift force at the framing member support. In wood framing, this force is typically resisted using a hurricane tie, although toenails may be used for very low uplift resistance. The traditional method then uses connectors at each joint in the wall along with the vertical wall framing members to transfer the force from the roof to the foundation. A connector would be specified to attach the top plate to the studs at the top level. Next, straps would be used to connect the studs above each floor level with the studs in the story below. At the lowest level, connectors attach the lowest stud to the sill plate. Finally, anchor bolts with large plate washers transfer the uplift force to the foundation. Tips for connector specifications are discussed below. Hurricane tie location Contractors generally prefer to install the roof-to-top plate connector on the inside of the wall, especially on a multi-story building where the outside is hard to access. When the roof-to-top plate connection is on the inside, it is important to ensure the top plate-tostud connection is also installed on the inside of the wall. Full-scale testing at Clemson University (South Carolina) have shown a significant reduction in connection capacity if these connections are made on opposite sides of the wall. Once the connection has been made into the stud, it is acceptable for the rest of the connections to be on the outside of the wall. For example, the floor-to-floor strapping can be on the outside of the wall, even if the stud-to-plate connectors at the top of the wall are on the inside (Figure 9).

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

13

Figure 9 Avoiding connector overlap Some high-capacity connectors are designed to be very wide so they can spread out the load into the top plates. However, when using one of these from the roof framing to the top plate and another type from the top plate to the studs, they can overlap when studs and roof framing line up. Consequently, the specification should call for connectors that wrap around the plate, instead of nailing to the side to avoid nail overlap (Figure 10). Alternately, a single connector can be specified to connect the roof framing directly to the stud below.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

14

Figure 10 Using straps for the floor-to-floor connection It is acceptable, and often preferable, to install floor-to-floor strapping over the wood structural panel sheathing that makes up the shear walls. When this occurs, full-length nails can be specified through the straps and sheathing and into the studs. On another point, straps are rated by their manufacturer based on not having a gap between the two connected members. For floor-to-floor connections, the designer should refer to the manufacturers clear span table, which will list allowable loads with a gap in the middle of the strap for the floor system. Know your nails It is important to keep in mind the fasteners required to install the specified connectors. Typically, specific hurricane ties, stud-plate ties, and straps are designed to use either a short 10d nail or a short 8d nail, but not both. These days, contractors in coastal areas have special pneumatic tools that install nails into connectors. These special tools do two very important thingsthey install the correct size nail, and they place the nail into the existing hole in the connector. Since contractors are likely to be using one of these tools, it will be inconvenient to have to switch out nails when installing different connectors. It is best to specify a series of connectors that require the same type of nail.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

15

Know your wood species The allowable load of a connector (or any fastener, for that matter) varies depending on the wood type to which it is fastened. Connectors achieve their highest allowable loads when nailed to Southern Pine or Douglas Fir-Larch lumber. However, other species (e.g. Spruce-Pine-Fir) have become very common in recent years. Connector manufacturers have worked hard to retest and publish connector capacities for SprucePine-Fir, but they are typically lower than values for Southern Pine or Douglas Fir. Both wood members to which the connector is nailed must be Southern Pine to use that species values. If these higher connector capacities are required, it is crucial to specify the type of wood for framing (e.g. top plates and studs). As an added benefit, shear walls will have higher allowable shear loads when constructed of Southern Pine or Douglas Fir framing. Include dead load Allowable stress load combinations in IBC and ASCE 7 permit 60 percent of the dead load likely to remain in place during a design event to resist wind loads. In a multi-story building, dead loads increase as the load path moves from the top of the building toward the bottom. In this way, with discrete connectors, the connector size can be reduced as the wind load decreases due to increasing dead load. Avoid cross-grain bending in sill plates At the bottom of the wall, connectors may be nailed to the outside or inside face of the sill plate, while the sill plate is held down in the middle by the anchor bolt. This causes a phenomenon known as cross-grain bending in the bottom plates. Design standards require this be avoided if possible. It can be minimized by one of three methods: installing connectors on both sides of the plate; installing a U-shaped stud-to-plate connector that wraps under the sill plate and up both sides of the stud; or specifying a large plate washer beneath the nut on the anchor bolt that will help hold down the sill plates edge. Alternate methods The continuous load path using connectors at each joint in framing has been successfully used for years for wind-resistant wood construction. In recent years, alternate methods have been proposed to achieve the same result. Continuous restraint system

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

16

One of these alternate methods is similar to the continuous tie-down system in that it uses a single all-thread rod or cable from the top plate to the foundation. The rod tiedowns capacity can be calculated fairly easily as the lesser of the tensile capacity of the rod, the bearing capacity of the washer at the top, and the capacity of the anchorage to the foundation at the bottom. However, design of the entire anchorage system requires extensive attention to detail. At first glance, the rod spacing would seem to be easily determined by dividing the linear uplift force at the top plate by the rod tie-down capacity. One important item is the design of the top plate to resist bending from the uplift loads in between rods. At the normally suggested 1.8 to 2.4 m (6 to 8 ft) spacing, the ability of the top plate to carry uplift loads in bending between anchors is severely limited. This is especially true when there is a splice in the double top plate. If the wood structural panel sheathing is to help resist bending in the top plates, additional fastening of the panel must be designed, since the existing fasteners are being used to resist shear. Another critical issue when using a continuous system in multi-story applications is wood shrinkage. As wood further dries after installation, it shrinks in the two directions perpendicular to the grain. Consequently, horizontal members (e.g. plates and rim joists) become shorter, causing the overall wall height to become less. If the continuous tie-down system is not able to take up this shrinkage, it will not restrain the top plate until the entire wall has lifted up an amount equal to the shrinkage. In addition to wood shrinkage, wall uplift can occur when the tension members themselves stretch under load. The stretch of a tension member can be calculated by the following equation:

PL AE

Where: P = total force in member L = total length of member A = cross-sectional area of member E = modulus of elasticity of member (constant 29,000,000 for steel)

It can be seen that deflection will increase as the force in the rod or cable increases, the length of the rod or cable increases, or the diameter of the rod or cable decreases. Building codes limit the allowable load for a single uplift connector to 3.2 mm (1/8 in.) of movement. Use of this limit is currently not codified for these types of systems, but should be considered to maintain traditional performance.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

17

Use of a continuous tie-down system for shear wall overturning restraint has already been discussed in this article. If the same rod is to be used to resist uplift and overturning, its capacity must be increased. If separate rods are used to resist uplift and overturning, their anchorage must be analyzed to ensure their capacity is not reduced due to close spacing of anchors. Use of cables for a continuous tie-down system presents many of the same challenges. An additional concern with the use of cables is their reduced actual cross-sectional area, which results in much more deflection than solid rod systems. Pre-tensioning is ineffective, since the cable relaxes over time due to cable relaxation, wood shrinkage, and compression settling until much of the pre-tensioning is no longer present. Sheathing system Another method of providing an uplift load path is to use the wood structural panel to resist both the shear and uplift at the same time. The most common way to do this is to install additional fasteners from the panel to the top and bottom plates to resist the uplift, in addition to the ones used for resisting shear. One challenge in using this method is the ability to install additional nails to achieve a significant uplift capacity without causing splitting in the top and bottom plates. In multi-story wood frame construction, shear walls may have very close fastener spacing, especially at lower levels. While the shear capacity of nails in the plates can be calculated using the National Design Specification for Wood Construction (NDS), the capacity of plates to resist splitting or cross grain tension from this type of design cannot be calculated. This author has participated in testing to explore the performance of walls with sheathing systems resisting combined shear and uplift. The only current code-referenced design guidance for this type of system is contained in the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) SSTD 10-99, Standard for Hurricane Resistant Residential Construction. This standard was written in the 1990s to comply with older Standard Building Code requirements. This author was part of a team that constructed a wall using the guidelines from this document, testing it for resistance to combined uplift and shear loads. Unfortunately, the wall was unable to achieve the design uplift and shear loads, even with a minimal safety factor of two. The failure was splitting of the bottom plate as shown in Figure 11.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

18

Figure 11 In addition, when this standard was written, the perforated shear wall method was just becoming popular, and the use of sheathing to resist uplift and shear was permitted for all types of shear walls. However, requirements added to the 2003 IBC state that for perforated shear walls:
perforated shear wall bottom plates at full-height sheathing shall be anchored for a uniform uplift force, t, equal to the unit shear force, v, determined in Section 2305.3.8.2.5.

This is due to an increased uplift load applied to the sill plate from the lack of overturning restraints at openings within the shear wall. A dearth of testing has prompted recent discussions in the design industry on whether perforated shear walls can resist any additional uplift, since the nails at the bottom plate are already resisting uplift and shear. Testing is continuing to be performed on sheathed walls to determine the conditions under which this type of system can be effective. Mid-rise wood-framed buildings can be economically constructed to withstand high wind events. All it takes is solid design, attention to detail, and good construction to create the continuous load path needed for both uplift and lateral loads. The string of natural disasters in recent years has shown well-designed and well-built buildings with a good load path can endure these types of forces. They also have shown even a few key connections lacking the strength to create a sufficient load path can have devastating results for the entire structure. Through ongoing testing and research in both the public and private sectors, new solutions are being developed that are helping to overcome these structural challenges and ensure we have strong, safe structures now and in the future.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com

19

About the Authors Randy Shackelford, PE, is a research engineer/building code specialist with Simpson Strong-Tie. He has focused his career on wind-resistant construction for the last 20 years, including 13 with Simpson Strong-Tie and seven with the Texas Department of Insurance. He currently serves on the American Forest and Paper Association Wood Design Standards Committee and the ICC Ad-Hoc Committee on Wall Bracing. Steve Pryor, PE, SE is the building systems research and development manager for Simpson Strong-Tie. Joining the company in 1997, he now manages the companys Tyrell Gilb Research Laboratory in Stockton, California, which features state-of-the-art seismic and high wind testing equipment. Steve is considered a subject matter expert in structural building design and is a member of several national building code committees.

Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

5956 W. Las Positas Boulevard

Pleasanton, CA 94588

Phone: 925.560.9000

Fax: 925.847.1605

www.strongtie.com