Development of wood and steel diaphragm hysteretic connector database for performance-based earthquake engineering

Performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) considers certain metrics to assess the seismic response of buildings, which integrate economic losses into the design process. PBEE requires the development and use of reliable nonlinear response analysis models to simulate the seismic performance of structures through collapse. The structural damage is assessed by evaluating physical damage caused by engineering demand parameters (EDPs), while the nonlinear numerical models are used to conduct dynamic analyses for varying levels of seismic intensity to compute the values of the representative EDPs. Accurate representation of structural members’ stiffness and strength deterioration (hysteretic) parameters plays an important role into simulating dynamic response through collapse. These parameters’ values are usually calibrated to a large number of experimental data. The development of a hysteretic parameter database for wood and steel diaphragm connectors is presented in this paper. The wood diaphragm connectors are commonly used in light-frame wood building construction for shear walls or roof diaphragms. The steel diaphragm connectors are used for building structures that incorporate steel frame roof diaphragms. The experimental data were used for quantifying the hysteretic parameters of two well-known nonlinear models considered into structural modeling as well as evaluating their energy dissipation properties. Case studies on the collapse performance assessment of a light-frame wood wall system and a low-rise building incorporating a steel roof system were conducted to demonstrate the usefulness of the diaphragm connector database.