Design and performance of nail connection in wood framing shear walls

As the preferable lateral resistance system of a wood shear wall is attributed to the good lateral performance of nail connection, this paper aims at investigating the pull-out and shear performances of framing members’ nail connection in wood shear walls under monotonic loading. It was found that the main failure mode of the pull-out behavior of nail connection was the withdrawal of threaded nails from framing members. In addition, the shear behavior of nail connection was characterized by plastic hinge of threaded nails, local tear of spruce-pine-fir (SPF) on the top of nails, and nail caps that were obliquely embedded into the surface of SPF. The average ultimate load and displacement of shear mode were 1.48 times and 5.12 times higher than those of pull-out mode, respectively. According to the research results, the corresponding exponential numerical model was established, which provided basic data for the lateral performance research and finite element simulation analysis of wood shear walls nail connection.