An Assessment of Seismic Floor Accelerations in Wood Shear Wall Buildings J. R. Jayamon 1 , P. Line 2 and F. A. Charney 3 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 200 Patton Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061; PH (805) 455-3427; email: jeenarj@vt.edu 2 American Wood Council, 222 Catoctin Circle SE Suite, 201 Leesburg, VA 20175; PH (202) 463-2767; email: PLine@awc.org 3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 200 Patton Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061; PH (540) 231-1444; email: fcharney@vt.edu ABSTRACT This paper is focused on assessing the earthquake induced horizontal floor accelerations in wood shear wall buildings. While building design codes have provisions for estimating horizontal seismic design force that might occur at different story levels in a building, these procedures are empirical and do not differentiate between various types of structural systems. The research discussed in this paper evaluates the floor acceleration demands in a variety of FEMA P-695 wood-frame shear wall index models, with different damping levels and earthquake ground motion characteristics. These computed floor acceleration demands are compared against the different design demands for rigid and flexible non-structural components as recommended in the seismic design provisions of ASCE 7. The results from this study show that for the wood-frame index models studied, maximum floor accelerations frequently occurred at first floor level which is different than the height- wise distribution of acceleration demands computed using ASCE 7 design provisions. INTRODUCTION Wood-frame shear wall systems are widely used for the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. While the wall studs carry the gravity loads, lateral loads due to seismic and wind effects are resisted by shear walls formed by sheathing nailed to the wall framing. Wood structural panels (eg. plywood and oriented strand board (OSB)) are a commonly used sheathing material for wood-frame shear wall construction. Sheathing grade and thickness, fastener size and spacing, framing specific gravity, and construction details are significant factors influencing the design strength and stiffness. Seismic design of wood shear wall structures in United States is guided mostly by Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (ANSI/AF&PA 2008) and ASCE 7-10 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 2010). Wood shear wall load-deformation behavior has a major influence on horizontal floor accelerations, which is important for the design of non-structural components (NSCs). In addition to providing protection against falling hazards and/or means of egress by NSCs during an earthquake, the proper design of NSCs