Project contact is Jasmine Wang at the National Research Council Canada
Summary
Currently, only light frame wood-based shearwall and braced and moment-resisting frames are given in the NBC 2015 as acceptable solutions, with the height limit for these SFRSs in high seismic zones being 20 m (6 storeys). There is no acceptable solution for using Timber SFRS in buildings more than 20 m high in high seismic zones. The Tall Wood building projects in Canada have been following the “Alternative Solution” path with supporting test data and analysis that could demonstrate equivalent or better performance than building and fire code or local condition requirements, and were approved on a case-by-case basis by the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). The Tall Wood projects have been and will be faced with different level of difficulties and challenges depending on the familiarity of AHJ with tall wood construction. Furthermore, there are no consistent procedure and performance criteria to analyze and evaluate the Timber SFRS in tall mass timber buildings that could be referenced by the AHJ.
This project is to undertake the work related to:
Phase I: development of a Technical Guide with a procedure for evaluation of the seismic performance of Timber SFRS in tall mass timber buildings.
Phase II: evaluation of an example solution of Mass Timber SFRS in accordance with the developed Technical Guide as a “Demo” project.
North American building codes currently provide strict limits on height of wood structures, where for example, in Canada wood structures are limited to 4 or 5 storeys. This paper examines wood-steel hybrid system to increase seismic force resistance beyo...
