PERFORMANCE BASED DESIGN METHOD FOR UNIT LOAD-BEARING WALL COMPOSED OF CURVED MEMBERS

Abstract

In this paper, a new load-bearing wall system is proposed which is composed of curved wooden member unit. This system can control both the stiffness and strength independently by changing the unit size, sectional size or curvature. The performance based design method is also proposed based on an inverse problem. By applying this system to old traditional wooden buildings, it becomes possible to design load bearing walls that can follow high deformation performance of the building structures. Furthermore, it is possible to change the appearance without changing the performance. The validity of the proposed method is examined through numerical examples.