CE 429

DESIGN OF WOOD STRUCTURES

Course Outcomes

Course Outcomes
Have a working familiarity with wood design
codes and specifications
Lesson Outcomes
Understand what load paths are in structures
Understand the types of lateral force resisting
systems used in wood structures
Load Path
Load Path

Load path of gravity load on roof

• Through roof sheathing to
nearest truss
• Along truss chord to wall top
plate
• Along top plate to nearest
vertical framing member
• Down stud to window header
• Across header to vertical
framing member
• Down stud to sill plate
• Through sill plate to stem wall
• Down stem wall to spread
footing
• From spread footing to soil
Loads

Vertical (gravity)
Dead
Live (occupancy)
Roof Live, Rain, Snow
Lateral
Wind*
Seismic*

*May have vertical components

Vertical Force Resisting System

• Beams
• Rafters
• Truss members
• Joists
• Sub-purlins
• Purlins
• Girders
• Columns
• Walls
• Foundation
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

LFRS will include one or more of the following

elements for transferring loads to the
foundation:

Braced frames
Primarily used in wood
Shear walls frame construction
Moment frames
Model Example
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

Wind load
(idealized)
 Lateral Force Resisting Systems

Wind load
(idealized)

Wind loads are transferred

along windward walls to the roof
and floor elevations
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

Wind loads on the roof and walls

are resisted by the walls parallel to
the wind load direction
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

Reaction forces on walls are

distributed over the length of the
walls
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

Consider a single floor…

 Lateral Force Resisting Systems
Wind load

Shear Shear
wall DIAPHRAGM wall
support support

The floor is acting like a simply supported beam in the horizontal plane. The wind
load is a transverse load, the walls on the short ends provide the support. For this
condition the floor is said to be a “diaphragm.”
Lateral Force Resisting Systems
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

The walls are subject to the shear

loading condition shown
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

The walls resist the applied shear

forces and are referred to as
“shear walls”
Lateral Force Resisting Systems

The ends of the shear walls are

anchored to resisting overturning
forces
Behavior of Structures under Loads
and Forces

AWC-DES410-100809_Lateral_Load_Resisting_Systems
Seismic Loads

http://www.awc.org/pdf/education/des/ReThinkMag-DES411A1-DesigningForEarthquakes-150901.pdf
Assignment (HW#3)

Follow along the lateral force example in

Section 3.6 of the text and make a bulleted
list of the procedure used to find the unit
shears in the transverse shear walls at the
roof and second story levels.
Behavior of Structures under Loads
and Forces
Load Path
LFRS
Diaphragms
Shear walls
Bracing
Moment connections

AWC-DES410-100809_Lateral_Load_Resisting_Systems