Abstract
A new bearing wall using so-called arakabe panel is developed to improve the seismic performance of timber frames. The arakabe panel is a precast mud-wall consisting of mud, waste paper and solidifier. By using arakabe panels instead of traditional mud-wall, it has advantages such as shortening of construction work and stabilization of quality. To evaluate the seismic performance of bearing walls framed by arakabe panels, static loading tests were carried out for various types of bearing walls. From experiments, it is found that the bearing wall framed by arakabe panels has the larger deformability and bearing force than the traditional mud-wall. It is possible easily to design a variety of bearing walls having bearing force as necessary.
