Evaluation of the displacement ductility for the seismic design of light-frame wood buildings

The research work presented herein deals with the analysis of light-frame wood (LFW) buildings under lateral seismic loading. The paper aim was to define the relationship between the global building ductility and the local ductility of the components via non-linear static analyses. Firstly, the different failure mechanisms were isolated and their influence over the building ductility was determined by focusing on single-storey buildings. Then, the study was extended to multi-storey buildings in order to evaluate how the number of storeys affects the ductility. In order to obtain results of general validity, the analyses were performed by varying the most relevant mechanical-geometrical parameters as well as the seismic input and the ductility of the base components.