AWC’s 2008 Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS) contains provisions for wood structural panel shear walls designed to resist shear and uplift forces simultaneously, as well as wind uplift forces alone. This article reviews the prescriptive engineered design tools and standards, progression and overview of provisions, tabulated values for uplift capacity, and requirements for installation and illustrations for nailing per the 2008 SDPWS.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Understand limitations of previous methods and the new prescriptive design tools
2. Describe the progression of provisions over time, leading up to the 2008 SDPWS
3. Recognize the requirements for wood structural panels designed to resist combined shear and uplift from wind
4. Interpret Tables 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 for allowable stress design (ASD) and load and resistance factor design (LRFD) adjustment factors