Load-Sharing and Redistribution in a One-Story Woodframe Building

This paper presents the results of a series of experiments on a full-scale one-story L-shaped woodframe house. The major objective of the experiments was to collect data for use in the validation of analytical models, and to examine the load redistribution in a nonsymmetrical light-frame structure under lateral loading. In these experiments, the distribution of the reaction forces underneath the walls, and the displaced shape of the house were measured in detail under static and static–cyclic loading. The experimental results have provided the most detailed picture of the reaction forces beneath a nonsymmetrical light-frame structure under lateral loading ever recorded. It was shown that there is potential for significant sharing and redistribution of applied lateral load, between the main shear walls of a light-frame house under both pseudoelastic and inelastic response conditions. Commonly used techniques for lateral load distribution in light-frame structures do not accommodate redistribution of the loading between the walls in the structure.