As global interest in using engineered wood products in tall buildings intensifies due to the “green” credential of wood, it is expected that more tall wood buildings will be designed and constructed in the coming years. This, however, brings new challenges to the designers. One of the major challenges is how to design lateral load-resisting systems (LLRSs) with sufficient stiffness, strength, and ductility to resist strong wind and earthquakes. In this study, an LLRS using mass timber panel on a stiff podium was developed for high-rise buildings in accordance with capacity-based design principle. The LLRS comprises eight shear walls with a core in the center of the building, which was constructed with structural composite lumber and connected with dowel-type connections and wood–steel composite system. The main energy dissipating mechanism of the LLRS was detailed to be located at the panel-to-panel interface. This LLRS was implemented in the design of a hypothetical 20-storey building. A finite element (FE) model of the building was developed using general-purpose FE software, ABAQUS. The wind-induced and seismic response of the building model was investigated by performing linear static and non-linear dynamic analyses. The analysis results showed that the proposed LLRS using mass timber was suitable for high-rise buildings. This study provided a valuable insight into the structural performance of LLRS constructed with mass timber panels as a viable option to steel and concrete for high-rise buildings.
Sustainability issues are driving the civil construction industry to adopt and study more environmentally friendly technologies as an alternative to traditional masonry/concrete construction. In this context, plantation wood especially stands out as a constituent of the cross-laminated timber (CLT) system, laminated wood glued in perpendicular layers forming a solid-wood structural panel. CLT panels are commonly connected by screws or nails, and several authors have investigated the behavior of these connections. Glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) dowels have been used to connect wooden structures, and have presented excellent performance results; however, they have not yet been tested in CLT. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP)-doweled connections between CLT panels. The specimens were submitted to monotonic shear loading, following the test protocol described in EN 26891-1991. Two configurations of adjacent five-layer panels were tested: flat-butt connections with 45° dowels (x, y, and z axes), and half-lap connections with 90° dowels. The results were evaluated according to the mechanical connection properties of strength, stiffness, and ductility ratio. The results showed higher stiffness for butt-end connections. In terms of strength, the half-lap connections were stronger than the butt-end connections.
This paper presents an experimental and analytical investigation on the application of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) made of European beech wood (fagus sylvatica L.) in timber truss structures. Particular focus is laid on developing improved design approaches for dowel-type connections and on promoting ductile failure behaviour, as the connections in timber trusses are generally governing the performance of the whole structure. Embedment tests were carried out in order to assess the embedment strength values for beech LVL, which are necessary to design dowel-type connections. The results showed higher values for beech LVL, as compared to estimations using existing formulas from design codes. A series of tensile connection tests showed that, using cross-layered beech LVL, ductile dowel-type connections with high load-carrying capacities can be designed, given that premature brittle failures are prevented. Lastly, tests on full truss structures confirmed that the favourable behaviour of dowel-type connections in cross-layered beech LVL can be implemented in truss systems, improving the global behaviour of the whole structural element.
