The structural performance of a single-story, wood-stud frame with brick veneer during a Jan. 26 shake-table test at the University of California, San Diego, offered no surprises. However, the structure’s masonry veneer showed distress in places, and that did surprise researchers. The full-scale earthquake test was the first of two designed to help engineers use performance-based design to improve the seismic behavior of masonry and wood buildings, common in residential and light-commercial construction.
“We believe that under many circumstances veneer can help structural performance,” says Richard E. Klingner, professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, and the principal investigator.