Resilient structures are buildings designed not only to protect life safety in a seismic event but also to preserve the structural integrity of the major components of the buildings so that they can be reoccupied quickly and at minimal cost. An example is a CLT rocking wall system, utilizing post-tensioned cables and energy dissipating-connectors, which is being used for the first time in North America in OSU’s new Peavy Hall. CLT rocking walls borrow from concepts used in concrete and steel structures that were later adapted to LVL building systems in New Zealand. This project will examine the impacts of wetting at the base of the wall on the structural capacity and cyclic performance of the system. Identical rocking wall systems will undergo structural testing, with one being subjected to simulated moisture intrusion that may occur during construction. The findings will provide important information that can be later implemented in design and construction guidelines.
Project contact is Paul Frederik Laleicke at North Carolina State University
Summary
This project assesses and compares the environmental impacts of forest products used in the old (1999) Peavy Hall teaching building at Oregon State University and the new mass timber building that will be completed in 2018. The findings will be incorporated in updated guidelines for life cycle analyses that fully take into account the role of reclaimable wood building products.
Building on the results of an earlier project that established protocols for post-occupancy building monitoring, this project aims to install a system in the new Peavy Hall building at Oregon State University to monitor moisture, relative humidity, vertical and slip movements due to shrinkage & deflection, post-tensioning losses, vibration and seismic activity. The monitoring system will establish a “living” laboratory that demonstrates in real time how the mass timber components of the building are affected by various internal and external phenomena. The data will be gathered and analyzed over the service life of the building.
The project will take the connection systems from the Composite CLT-Concrete Floor Systems for Tall Building Design project and test them over elevated temperatures to evaluate strength properties as well as how the stiffness and strength degrade at different levels of elevated temperatures. This information will be implemented into fire models and will help to predict things like failure time.
This project aims to solve one of the biggest barriers to increased market adoption of mass-timber buildings - energy consumption. The project team will explore how to replace the concrete typically needed for night flush cooling of thermal mass. The goal is to provide results that will help mass-timber buildings achieve net-zero energy priorities for a larger range of use types and climate zones while also providing new insight into human perception of thermal comfort in mass-timber buildings.
Project contact is Shiling Pei at the Colorado School of Mines
Summary
NHERI Tallwood project is an effort to develop and validate a resilient-based seismic design methodology for tall wood buildings. The project started in September 2016 and will last till 2020. The project team will validate the design methodology through shake table testing of a 10-story full-scaled wood building specimen at NHERI@UCSD. It will be the world's largest wood building tested at full-scale.
Project contact is Chris Knowles at Oregon State University
Summary
This project explores the emerging cross-laminated timber industry in other countries to learn the key success factors, challenges, business models and level of government support other countries receive in order to better implement the use of CLT in the U.S. The outcomes will include a database, annual reports on the CLT industry and specific guidelines for facilitating sustainable growth in the modern U.S. forest products industry.
Project contact is André Barbosa at Oregon State University
Summary
This project develops benchmark data needed to generate design guidelines for structural engineers to calculate strength & stiffness of CLT-diaphragms, with and without concrete toppings. The project includes a full-scale test of a two-story mass timber building at the UC San Diego shake table in collaboration with the larger project, “Development and Validation of a Resilience-based Seismic Design Methodology for Tall Wood Buildings” which features collaborators from throughout the western US and is funded by the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) program of the National Science Foundation.
A key question about new generation taller wood buildings is how they will perform over time in terms of durability and livability. This project will determine how best to measure these qualities by selecting sensors, determining testing and measurement protocols, and implementing testing assemblies in selected CLT buildings in Oregon. Future research will use the knowledge developed through this project to carry out post-occupancy monitoring, generating valuable new insights into building performance.
New research is showing that wood buildings are more likely to harbor environmental microbes with beneficial health effects. This pilot project will study various surface materials in both the lab setting and occupied mass timber buildings to assess effects on occupants’ health and comfort as well as indoor air quality.
