Airborne sound insulation performance of wall assemblies is a critical aspect which is directly associated with the comfort level of the occupants, which in turn affects the market acceptance. In single-family and low-rise residential buildings, the partition walls, whether loadbearing or non-loadbearing, are commonly framed with studs of solid sawn lumber of 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8. In commercial buildings and multi-storey residential buildings, the partition walls are commonly framed using light-gauge steel studs.
The shortcomings of solid sawn lumber studs form the motivation for this project to develop wood studs that would address these shortcomings to promote greater wood use in partition walls.
The conceptual design and fabrication work and the preliminary test results have shown that are partition-wall stud made out of composite wood material could have the same or better airborne sound insulation performance as compared to the 25 gauge steel stud. The concept is promising, with a manufacturing process and fabrication that would work and be practical.
This report addresses serviceability issues of tall wood buildings focusing on vibration and sound insulation performance. The sound insulation and vibration performance may not affect building's safety, but affects occupants' comfort and proper operation of the buildings and the funciton of sensitive equipment...
Advanced Wood-Based Solutions for Mid-Rise and High-Rise Construction: In-Situ Testing of the Brock Commons 18-Storey Building for Vibration and Acoustic performances
This report addresses serviceability issues of tall wood buildings focusing on their vibration and sound insulation performance. The sound insulation and vibration performance may not affect the building’s safety, but affects the occupants’ comfort and the proper operation of the buildings and the function of sensitive equipment...
For wood floor systems, their vibration performance is significantly dependent on the conditions of their supports, specifically the rigidity of the support. Detrimental effects could result if the floor supports do not have sufficient rigidity. This is special ture for floor supporting beams. The problem of vibrating floor due to flexible...
As part of its research work on wood buildings, FPInnovations has recently launched a Design Guide for Timber-Concrete Composite Floors in Canada. This technique, far from being new, could prove to be a cost-competitive solution for floors with longer-span since the mechanical properties of the two materials act in complementarity. Timber-concrete systems consist of two distinct layers, a timber layer and a concrete layer (on top), joined together by shear connectors. The properties of both materials are then better exploited since tension forces from bending are mainly resisted by the timber, while compression forces from bending are resisted by the concrete. This guide, which contains numerous illustrations and formulas to help users better plan their projects, addresses many aspects of the design of timber-concrete composite floors, for example shear connection systems, ultimate limit state design, vibration and fire resistance of floors, and much more.
Interior partition walls for non-residential and high-rise residential construction are an US$8 billion market opportunity in Canada and the United States (Crespell and Poon, 2014). They represent 1.6 billion ft² (150 million m²) of wall area where wood currently has less than 10%...
This report provides an overview of major changes occurred in the recent decade to design and construction of the building envelope of wood and wood-hybrid construction. It also covers some new or unique considerations required to improve building envelope performance, due to evolutions of structural systems, architectural design, energy efficiency requirements, or use of new materials. It primarily aims to help practicioners better understand wood-based building envelope systems to improve design and construction practices. The information provided should also be useful to the wood industry to better understand the demands for wood products in the market place. Gaps in research are identified and summarized at the end of this report.
Two of the major topics of interest to those designing taller and larger wood buildings are the susceptibility to differential movement and the likelihood of mass timber components drying too slowly after they become wet during construction. The Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, British Columbia provides a unique opportunity for non-destructive...
Overall moisture management during construction has become increasingly important due to the increase in building height and area, which potentially prolongs the exposure to inclement weather, and the overall increase in speed of construction, which may not allow adequate time for drying to occur. This report provides guidelines and relevant information about on-site moisture management practices that can be adapted to suit a range of wood construction projects...
In order to address the lack of measured natural frequencies and damping ratios for wood and hybrid wood buildings, and lack of knowledge of vibration performance of innovative CLT floors and sound insulation performance of CLT walls and floors, FPInnovations conducted...
