perforated shear wall

In wood wall framing, a structural panel with openings for windows or doors with no specific design requirement for reinforcing the corners around the openings. In other words, the entire wall section acts as a brace taking into account the weakening caused by openings in the wall. A perforated shear wall will typically have holdown anchors at each end of the wall. Contrast the “perforated shear wall” with a “segmented shear wall” which would have holdowns on each side of wall openings and full-height sheathing.

IBC definition: Perforated Shear Wall. A wood structural panel sheathed wall with openings, that has not been specifically designed and detailed for force transfer around openings.

Alternate spellings and misspellings: perforated-shear wall, perforated wall, perforated shearwall, perforated-shear-wall.