Laboratory Testing of Energy-Efficient Wood-Framed Shear Walls

Residential energy use is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. In conventional wood-framed construction, the wood framing creates thermal bridges that allow heat to bypass insulation. One suggestion for reducing thermal bridging is the staggered stud (SS) wall. SS walls use 2×6 bottom and top plates with 2×4 studs alternating between sides of the wall. A literature review revealed a lack of laboratory test data for staggered stud walls used as shear walls, raising concerns about their safety under lateral loading from earthquakes. We tested the seismic performance of typical SS and conventional walls. The SS specimens performed similarly to conventional walls. Some minor differences emerged, but the data raised no immediate concerns with use of SS walls in areas of seismic hazard. Additional work is proposed for laboratory testing and computational modeling of mechanical and thermal behavior for walls with innovative framing arrangements.