Although not yet seen as common practice, building with cross laminated timber (CLT) is gaining momentum in North America. Behind the scenes of the widely publicized project initiatives such as the Wood Innovation Design Centre Building in Canada and the...
Tall building (higher than 8 stories) construction using Cross laminated timber (CLT) is a relatively new trend for urban developments around the world. In the U.S., there is great interest in utilizing the potential of this new construction material. By analyzing a ten-story condominium building model constructed using building energy...
Compared to light-frame wood shear walls, it is relatively difficult for panelized CLT shear walls to achieve similar levels of lateral deflection without paying special attention to design details, i.e., connections. A design lacking ductility or energy dissipating mechanism will result in high acceleration amplifications and excessive global overturning demands for multistory buildings, and even more so for tall wood buildings. Although a number of studies have been conducted on CLT shear walls and building assemblies since the 1990s, the wood design community’s understanding of the seismic behavior of panelized CLT systems is still in the learning phase, hence the impetus for this article and the tall CLT building workshop, which will be introduced herein. For example, there has been a recent trend in engineering to improve resiliency, which seeks to design a building system such that it can be restored to normal functionality sooner after an earthquake than previously possible, i.e., it is a resilient system. While various resilient lateral system concepts have been explored for concrete and steel construction, this concept has not yet been realized for multistory CLT systems. This forum article presents a review of past research developments on CLT as a lateral force-resisting system, the current trend toward design and construction of tall buildings with CLT worldwide, and attempts to summarize the societal needs and challenges in developing resilient CLT construction in regions of high seismicity in the United States.
This paper presents selected results of connector testing and wall testing which were part of a Forest Products Lab-funded project undertaken at Colorado State University in an effort to determine seismic performance factors for cross laminated timber (C...
The 11th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering
Research Status
Complete
Notes
July 21-24, 2015, Victoria, BC, Canada
Summary
This paper presents recent progress in the development of seismic performance factors for cross-laminated timber (CLT) systems in the United States. A brief overview of some of other systematic studies conducted in Europe, North America, and Japan is also provided. The FEMA P695 methodology is briefly described and selected results from connector testing and CLT wall testing are discussed. Shear and uplift tests were performed on generic angle brackets to quantify their behavior. CLT walls with these connectors were then tested investigate the influence of various parameters on wall component performance. The influential factors considered include boundary condition, gravity loading, CLT grade, panel thickness, and panel aspect ratio (height:length). Results indicate that boundary condition and gravity loading have beneficial effect on strength and stiffness of the CLT panels. CLT grade is an important parameter while CLT panel thickness only has a minimal influence on wall behavior. Higher aspect ratio (4:1) panels demonstrated less stiffness but considerably more ductility than the panels with lower aspect ratio (2:1). This paper also provides details on some ongoing efforts including additional tests planned, index buildings from which P-695 archetypes will be extracted, and nonlinear modeling for this project.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Conference
Research Status
Complete
Notes
April 27-29, 2017, Wellington, New Zealand
Summary
With global urbanization trends, the demands for tall residential and mixed-use buildings in the range of 8~20 stories are increasing. One new structural system in this height range are tall wood buildings which have been built in select locations around the world...
A collaborative project between the Forest Products Laboratory and Colorado State University to develop seismic performance factors for cross laminated timber is underway. The project requires application of the FEMA P-695 methodology, which is purposely...
In order to cope with the speed of urbanization around the world especially in areas of high seismicity, researchers and engineers have always been investigating cost-effective building systems with high seismic performance. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is a wood based material that is suitable for tall building construction. However, the...
Second European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
Research Status
Complete
Notes
August 25-29, 2014, Istanbul, Turkey
Summary
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a structural system has not been fully introduced in European or North American building codes. One of the most important issues for designers of CLT structures in earthquake prone regions when equivalent static design procedure is used, are the values for the force modification factors (R-factors) for this structural system. Consequently, the objective of this study was to derive suitable ductility-based force modification factors (Rd-factors) for seismic design of CLT buildings for the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC). For that purpose, the six-storey NEESWood Capstone wood-frame building was redesigned as a CLT structure and was used as a reference symmetrical structure for the analyses. The same floor plan was used to develop models for ten and fifteen storey buildings. Non-linear analytical models of the buildings designed with different Rd-factors were developed using the SAPWood computer program. CLT walls were modelled using the output from mechanics models developed in Matlab that were verified against CLT wall tests conducted at FPInnovations. Two design methodologies for determining the CLT wall design resistance (to include and exclude the influence of the hold-downs), were used. To study the effects of fastener behaviour on the R-factors, three different fasteners (16d nails, 4x70mm and 5x90mm screws) used to connect the CLT walls, were used in the analyses. Each of the 3-D building models was subjected to a series of 22 bi-axial input earthquake motions suggested in the FEMA P-695 procedure. Based on the results, the fragility curves were developed for the analysed buildings. Results showed that an Rd-factor of 2.0 is appropriate conservative estimate for the symmetrical CLT buildings studied, for the chosen level of seismic performance.
