Load-sharing mechanism in timber-steel hybrid shear wall systems

The lateral performance of timber-steel hybrid shear wall systems with regard to the interaction between the steel frame and the infill wood shear wall was investigated in this paper. A numerical model for the timber-steel hybrid shear wall system was developed and verified against test results. Design parameters, such as the lateral infill-to-frame stiffness ratio and the arrangements of wood-steel bolted connections were studied using the numerical model. Some design recommendations were also proposed based on the parametric analysis. In the hybrid shear wall system, the infill wood wall was found to resist a major part of the lateral load within relatively small wall drifts, and then the steel frame provided more lateral resistance. Under seismic loads, the infill wood wall could significantly reduce the inter-story drift of the hybrid system, and a complementary effect between the infill wood wall and the steel frame was observed through different lateral load resisting mechanisms, which provided robustness to the hybrid shear wall systems.