This InfoNote summarizes recent research and work in progress. A significant amount of fire research has been conducted on mass timber over the last 10 years in Canada. This has supported the successful design and construction of numerous low-, mid-and even high-rise wood buildings. This has also fostered the introduction of new provisions into the National Building Code of Canada which has made wood and mass timber construction more accessible. However, the fire performance of these systems remains a concern for many potential occupants or owners of these buildings, not to mention building officials and fire departments. Research at FPInnovations continues to support designers and builders in the use of mass timber assemblies by ensuring fire safe designs.
FPInnovations’involvement in various codes and standards technical committees aims to monitor, contributeor propose changes for improvement as well as to create new standards to include new wood products and systems based on knowledge developed from FPInnovations’ research activities. Involvement also allows FPInnovations to be aware of any potential changes to codes and standards and to recognize and address threats and opportunities for wood use. Codes and standards exist to protect consumers but are written to reflect the current practices and knowledge based on a consensus agreement by committee members. FPInnovations’ involvement in codes and standards committees helps to align the coming changes with new wood products. This InfoNote reports on FPInnovations’ contribution to the floor vibration-control design methods on codes and standards implementation and research.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) constitutes a promising solution for numerous structural applications, including for large and tall residential and commercial buildings. The prospect of building larger timber structures creates some structural challenges, amongst them being that lateral forces created by high winds and strong earthquakes are higher and create higher demands of “holddowns”. The Canadian Standard for Engineering Design in Wood CSA-O86 does not (yet) provide any specific procedures to estimate the resistance of mass-timber Lateral Load Resisting Systems (LLRS) nor how to facilitate the targeted kinematic mode, especially for multi-panel walls where the LLRS behaviour is a function of connection behaviour.
The project investigated the viability of internal-perforated-steel-plates (ISP) with self-drilling dowels as high-performance connections for CLT LLRS. The project objective was to contribute towards the development of reliable design guidance for ISP connections. To achieve this objective, first at the material level, the properties of the used steel-plates and dowels were verified. Then, at the component level, the performance of shear connections and hold-downs were investigated by performing quasi-static monotonic and reversed cyclic tests.
The most significant finding of the component level tests was the proof that it is possible to control the strength, stiffness, and ductility only through the IPSP and avoid bending of the SDD or crushing of the wood. Furthermore, the length of the steel perforations had a large impact on the performance with the steel-plates with the long slots (Type-D and Type-E) exhibiting lower strength and stiffness. For the hold-down tests, the same perforation geometry as for the shear-connection tests was chosen. As already determined in the shear-connection tests, the hold-down specimens with the short perforation slots resulted in the strongest and stiffest connection.
The results from this project will be used to design and test CLT shear walls with ISP connections.
Nail-Laminated Timber (NLT) and box beam are efficient and economical engineered wood products. Although NLT has been used in North America for more than a century, only in recent years it has gained renewed interests as they have been seen as the most economical panel products used in mass timber buildings. Box beams, on the other hand, are lightweight and generally possess higher strength and stiffness than comparable-sized solid timber and are more efficient than solid timber large spans and loads.
In this report, existing design provisions and their limitations for the design and construction of NLT in box beam in Canadian standards are reviewed. For NLT, there is a general lack of information related to manufacturing, design and construction to ensure consistent manufacturing and installation practices. Therefore, it is difficult to research and document with confidence the full range of performance that can be achieved with NLT. It is therefore recommended that a North American product standard and design information on structural performance, floor vibration, fire resistance, acoustic performance, and construction risk mitigation measures (e.g. moisture and fire) be developed.
In CSA 086, design methods are limited to box beams with flanges and webs bonded with glue. As the flanges and webs of a box beam can be assembled by either glue or mechanical fasteners, it is recommended that design provisions for box beam with mechanical joints be also developed. With the information in Eurocode 5 and relevant supporting research papers, it is ready to be implemented.
