Cripple Wall Small-Component Test Program: Dry Specimens (PEER-CEA Project)
Authors: Schiller Brandon , Hutchinson Tara , Cobeen Kelly 
Published: February 2023

This report is one of a series of reports documenting the methods and findings of a multi-year, multi-disciplinary project coordinated by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) and funded by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). The overall project is titled “Quantifying the Performance of Retrofit of Cripple Walls and Sill Anchorage in Single-Family Wood-Frame Buildings,” henceforth referred to as the “PEER–CEA Project.” The overall objective of the PEER–CEA Project is to provide scientifically based information (e.g., testing, analysis, and resulting loss models) that measures and documents seismic performance of wood-frame houses with cripple wall and sill anchorage deficiencies as well as retrofitted conditions that address those deficiencies. Three primary tasks support the earthquake loss-modeling effort. They are: (1) the development of ground motions and loading protocols that accurately represent the diversity of seismic hazard in California; (2) the execution of a suite of quasi-static cyclic experiments to measure and document the performance of cripple wall and sill anchorage deficiencies to develop and populate loss models; and (3) nonlinear response history analysis on cripple wall-supported buildings and their components. This report is a product of Working Group 4: Testing, whose central focus was to experimentally investigate the seismic performance of retrofitted and existing cripple walls. This present report focuses on non-stucco or “dry” exterior finishes. Paralleled by a large-component test program conducted at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) [Cobeen et al. 2020], the present report involves two of multiple phases of small-component tests conducted at University of California San Diego (UC San Diego). Details representative of era-specific construction–specifically the most vulnerable pre-1960s construction–are of predominant focus in the present effort. Parameters examined are cripple wall height, finish style, gravity load, boundary conditions, anchorage, and deterioration. This report addresses all eight specimens in the second phase of testing and three of the six specimens in the fourth phase of testing. Although conducted in different testing phases, their results are combined here to co-locate observations regarding the behavior of all dry finished specimens. Experiments involved imposition of combined vertical loading and quasi-static reversed cyclic lateral load onto eleven cripple walls. Each specimen was 12 ft in length and 2-ft or 6-ft in height. All specimens in this report were constructed with the same boundary conditions on the top, bottom, and corners of the walls. Parameters addressed in this report include: dry exterior finish type (shiplap horizontal lumber siding, shiplap horizontal lumber siding over diagonal lumber sheathing, and T1-11 wood structural panels), cripple wall height, vertical load, and the retrofitted condition. Details of the test specimens, testing protocol (including instrumentation), and measured as well as physical observations are summarized. Results from these experiments are intended to support advancement of numerical modeling tools, which ultimately will inform seismic loss models capable of quantifying the reduction of loss achieved by applying state-of-practice retrofit methods as identified in FEMA P-1100 Vulnerability-Base Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of One- and Two-Family Dwellings.