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...
The structural use of timber coming from fast growing and low-grade species such as poplar is one of the current challenges in the wood value chains, through the development of engineering products. In this work, a qualitative comparison of the behavior of mixed glued laminated timber made of pine in their outer layers and of poplar in their inner layers is shown and discussed. Single-species poplar and pine laminated timber have been used as control layouts. The investigation includes destructive four-point bending tests and three non-destructive methodologies: finite elements numerical model; semi-analytical model based on the Parallel Axes theorem and acoustic resonance testing. An excellent agreement between experimental and numerical results is obtained. Although few number of samples have been tested, the results indicate that the use of poplar as a low-grade species in the inner layers of the laminated timber can be a promising technology to decrease the weight of the timber maintaining the good mechanical properties of pine. Likewise, the need for the use of the shear modulus in both experimental measurements and numerical analysis is suggested, as well as the need to reformulate the vibration methodology for non-destructive grading in the case of mixed timber.
This paper presents a novel approach for the determination of the loss of composite action for timber composite systems using only measurements from non-destructive vibration testing. Traditionally, the composite action of a system is evaluated from stat...
Project contact is Arijit Sinha at Oregon State University
Summary
This project will undertake a comprehensive analysis of the effects of water exposure, in various forms, on mass timber building elements. Water intrusion is mostly commonly seen during construction, but can also occur during failure of roofs or external facades or as a result of internal plumbing failures. The research team will employ CAT-scan imaging, vibrational testing, non-destructive and small-scale physical tests to assess the effects of moisture intrusion and any subsequent biodegradation on the structural performance and aesthetic characteristics of the building elements and connections. This analysis will include investigating the effects of cracking and delamination that may occur as a result of wetting and drying. The project will facilitate development of guidelines on moisture control during construction, help identify suitable methods for protecting mass timber products where required and highlight design features that can be used to mitigate the risk of fungal and insect attack.
