Experimental Characterization of Monotonic and Cyclic Loading Responses of CLT Panel-To-Foundation Angle Bracket Connections

Cross laminated timber (CLT) is an engineered wood plate product suitable for the construction of shear walls in low-rise and medium-rise residential and commercial buildings. CLT shear walls are attached to foundations by using metal connectors arranged to prevent the horizontal sliding and uplift of entire superstructures. It is critical that individual CLT panels remain properly anchored, even during events such as design level wind storms and earthquakes, and that overloaded connectors attaching walls to foundations are capable of deforming plastically. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the mechanical behaviors of a range of commercially manufactured and specially designed steel angle bracket connectors intended to resist horizontal shear force flow at CLT wall and foundation interfaces. Both monotonic loading and fully reversed displacement controlled loading protocols were employed so that results apply to wind and seismic design scenarios. The broad conclusion is that the behavior of CLT panel-to-foundation angle bracket connections is too complex to be predicted by using simplified analytical methods. Therefore, test based studies are the only reliable means of determining design capacities for particular types of angle bracket connections.