The objective of this research is to address a knowledge gap related to fire performance of midply shear walls. Testing has already been done to establish the structural performance of these assemblies. To ensure their safe implementation and their broad acceptance, this project will establish fire resistance ratings for midply shear walls. Fire tests will provide information for the development of design considerations for midply shear walls and confirm that they can achieve at least 1-hour fire-resistance ratings that are required for use in mid-rise buildings.
This research will support greater adoption of mid-rise residential and non-residential wood-frame construction and improve competition with similar buildings of noncombustible construction. This work will also support the development of the APA system report for midply walls, which will be a design guideline for using midply walls in North America.
Project contact is Keri Ryan at University of Nevada, Reno (United States)
Summary
A landmark shake table test of a 10-story mass timber building will be conducted in late 2020. The test program, funded by other sources, will help accelerate the adoption of economically competitive tall timber buildings by validating the seismic performance of a resilient cross-laminated timber (CLT) rocking wall system. In this project, we leverage and extend the test program by including critical nonstructural components and systems (NCS). Including NCSs, which are most vulnerable to rocking induced deformations of the CLT core, allows investigation of the ramification of this emerging structural type on building resiliency. Quantifying interactions amongst vertically and horizontally spanning NCSs during earthquake shaking will allow designers to develop rational design strategies for future installation of such systems. The expected research outcomes are to expand knowledge of rocking wall system interactions with various NCS, identify NCS vulnerabilities in tall timber buildings, and develop solutions to address these vulnerabilities. Moreover, this effort will greatly increase visibility of the test program. The results of this research will be widely disseminated to timber design and NCS communities through conference presentations, online webinars, and distribution to publicly accessible research repositories.
The Midply™ triple-leaf shear resistive wall is designed by FPInnovations and UBC to be employed in mid-rise wood building. Compared to double-leaf structures, this wall has a weaker low-frequency sound insulation due to the additional resonance created by the middle-leaf. The original contribution of this thesis is developing a method to predict the air-borne sound transmission through triple-leaf walls, which can incorporate perforated plates. The model is based on a modified Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) that accounts for the losses at the perimeter of the finite cavity. The air-borne sound transmission tests performed on simplified small-scale structures showed that the modified TMM model has acceptable predictions in most frequencies, although Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) was superior for high-frequency predictions. The research suggests that the sound insulation in triple-leaf structures could be improved through careful perforation of the middle-leaf, which is suggested for future work.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Conference
Research Status
Complete
Notes
April 13-15, 2012, Christchurch, New Zealand
Summary
The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Arts and Media building was completed in 2011 and consists of three seismically separate complexes. This research focussed on the Arts building as it showcases the use of coupled post-tensioned timber shear walls. These are part of the innovative Expan system. Full-scale, in-situ dynamic testing of the novel building was combined with finite element modelling and updating to obtain an understanding of the structural dynamic performance within the linear range. Ambient testing was performed at three stages during construction and was combined with forced vibration testing for the final stage. This forms part of a larger instrumentation program developed to investigate the wind and seismic response and long term deformations of the building. A finite element model of the building was formulated and updated using experimental modal characteristics. It was shown that the addition of non-structural elements, such as cladding and the staircase, increased the natural frequency of the first mode and the second mode by 19% and 24%, respectively. The addition of the concrete floor topping as a structural diaphragm significantly increased the natural frequency of the first mode but not the second mode, with an increase of 123% and 18%, respectively. The elastic damping of the NMIT building at low-level vibrations was identified as being between 1.6% and 2.4%.
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Construction Materials
Summary
Cross-laminated timber has, in the last 6 years, been used for the first time to form shear walls and cores in multi-storey buildings of seven storeys or more. Such buildings can have low mass in comparison to conventional structural forms. This low mass means that, as cross-laminated timber is used for taller buildings still, their dynamic movement under wind load is likely to be a key design parameter. An understanding of dynamic lateral stiffness and damping, which has so far been insufficiently researched, will be vital to the effective design for wind-induced vibration. In this study, an ambient vibration method is used to identify the dynamic properties of a seven-storey cross-laminated timber building in situ. The random decrement method is used, along with the Ibrahim time domain method, to extract the modal properties of the structure from the acceleration measured under ambient conditions. The results show that this output-only modal analysis method can be used to extract modal information from such a building, and that information is compared with a simple structural model. Measurements on two occasions during construction show the effect of non-structural elements on the modal properties of the structure.
Walls, as components of the lateral-force-resisting system of a building, are defined as shear walls. This study aims to determine the behavior of shear wall panel cross-laminated-timber-based mangium wood (Acacia mangium Willd) (CLT-mangium) in earthquake-resistant prefabricated houses. The earthquake performance of CLT mangium frame shear walls panels has been studied using monotonic tests. The shear walls were constructed using CLT-mangium measuring 2400 mm × 1200 mm × 68 mm with various design patterns (straight sheathing, diagonal sheathing/45°, windowed shear wall with diagonal pattern and a door shear wall with a diagonal pattern). Shear wall testing was carried out using a racking test, and seismic force calculations were obtained using static equivalent earthquake analysis. CLT-mangium sheathing installed horizontally (straight sheathing) is relatively weak compared to the diagonal sheathing, but it is easier and more flexible to manufacture. The diagonal sheathing type is stronger and stiffer because it has triangulation properties, such as truss properties, but is more complicated to manufacture (less flexible). The type A design is suitable for low-intensity zones (2), and types B, D, E1 and E2 are suitable for moderate-intensity zones (3, 4), and type C is suitable for severe-intensity zones (5).
A balanced combination of heat flows creates suitable conditions for thermal comfort—a factor contributing to the quality of the internal environment of buildings. The presented analysis of selected thermal-technical parameters is up-to-date and suitable for verifying the parameters of building constructions. The research also applied a methodology for examining the acoustic parameters of structural parts of buildings in laboratory conditions. In this research, selected variant solutions of perimeter walls based on prefab cross laminated timber were investigated in terms of acoustic and thermal-technical properties. The variants structures were investigated in laboratory but also in model conditions. The results of the analyses show significant differences between the theoretical or declared parameters and the values measured in laboratory conditions. The deviations of experimental measurements from the calculated or declared parameters were not as significant for variant B as they were for variant A. These findings show that for these analyzed sandwich structures based on wood, it is not always possible to reliably declare calculated values of thermal-technical and acoustic parameters. It is necessary to thoroughly examine such design variants, which would contribute to the knowledge in this field of research of construction systems based on wood.
Structure-borne sound transmission across a cross-junction of double solid timber walls with a solid timber floor was analyzed in a recent research project. Both, the double walls as well as floor slab, were of so-called Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). The floor slab was continuous across the junction for structural reasons and thus, formed a sound bridge between the elements of the double wall. To gain a better understanding of the contributions of sound transmission between the wall and floor elements from the different possible paths, a thorough analysis was conducted. Hereby, direct sound transmission through, and radiation efficiencies of, the CLT elements were measured in a direct sound transmission facility; as well as, structure-borne sound transmission between CLT elements was measured on a junction mock-up. The experimental data was used as in-put data and for validation of the engineering model of EN 12354/ISO 15712 for the prediction of flanking sound insulation in buildings. The test procedures, analysis and results of this research project are presented here.
In platform-type multi-story cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings, gravity loads from upper floors, and vertical reaction forces from horizontal actions, like wind loads, cause substantial compressive forces in the CLT-floor elements. The combination of these high forces with a comparable low compression stiffness and strength perpendicular to the grain of timber, makes the compression perpendicular to the grain (CPG) verification of CLT an important design criterion. In this experimental study, CPG of CLT was investigated by means of typical wall-to-floor connections in CLT platform-type structures. CLT-wall elements were used for load application to transmit forces through the CLT-floor element by CPG. Compared to load application by steel elements, as it commonly is done in experiments, lower stiffness but similar strength were found for CLT walls. The study of different connection types showed the highest stiffness and strength for connections assembled with screws, followed by pure wood-to-wood contact, while connections with acoustic layers between the floor and wall elements showed the lowest stiffness and strength. In addition, these connections were tested for center and edge load position on the CLT-floor element. The strength for center and edge position compared to full surface loaded specimens increased linearly with the activated material volume, as determined by earlier proposed stress dispersion models. The stress dispersion effect was visualized by surface strain measurements using digital image correlation technique. Also, the stiffness increased with the activated material volume. Stress dispersion in the CLT-floor allowed to explain the increase in stiffness and strength with decreasing CLT-wall thickness. Strength values at different strain levels, and stiffness and strength increase factors suitable for the engineering design of CLT structures are provided.
Comprehensive guide to engineered wood construction systems for both residential and commercial/industrial buildings. Includes information on plywood and oriented strand board (wood structural panels), glulam, I-joists, structural composite lumber, typical specifications and design recommendations for floor, wall and roof systems, diaphragms, shear walls, fire-rated systems and methods of finishing.
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