The objective of this research is to address a knowledge gap related to fire performance of midply shear walls. Testing has already been done to establish the structural performance of these assemblies. To ensure their safe implementation and their broad acceptance, this project will establish fire resistance ratings for midply shear walls. Fire tests will provide information for the development of design considerations for midply shear walls and confirm that they can achieve at least 1-hour fire-resistance ratings that are required for use in mid-rise buildings.
This research will support greater adoption of mid-rise residential and non-residential wood-frame construction and improve competition with similar buildings of noncombustible construction. This work will also support the development of the APA system report for midply walls, which will be a design guideline for using midply walls in North America.
Recent interests in adopting sustainable materials and developments in construction technology have created a trend of aiming for greater heights with timber buildings. With the increased height these buildings are subjected to higher level of lateral load demand. A common and efficient way to increase capacity is to use shearwalls, which can resist significant part of the load on the structures. Prefabricated mass timber panels such as those made of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) can be used to form the shearwalls. But due to relatively low stiffness value of timber it is often difficult to keep the maximum drifts within acceptable limit prescribed by building codes. It becomes necessary to either increase wall sizes to beyond available panel dimensions or use multiple or groups of walls spread over different locations over the floor plan. Both of the options are problematic from the economic and functional point of view. One possible alternative is to adopt a Hybrid system, using Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSW) with timber moment frames. The SPSW has much higher stiffness and combined with timber frames it can reduce overall building drifts significantly. Frames with prefabricated timber members have considerable lateral load capacity. For structures located in seismic regions the system possesses excellent energy dissipation ability with combination of ductile SPSW and yielding elements within the frames. This paper investigates combination of SPSW with timber frames for seismic applications. Numerical model of the system has been developed to examine the interaction between the frames and shear walls under extreme lateral load conditions. Arrangements of different geometries of frames and shear walls are evaluated to determine their compatibility and efficiency in sharing lateral loads. Recommendations are presented for optimum solutions as well as practical limits of applications.
Technical Guide for Evaluation of Seismic Force Resisting Systems and Their Force Modification Factors for Use in the National Building Code of Canada with Concepts Illustrated Using a Cantilevered Wood CLT Shear Wall Example
The objective of this guideline is to provide a simple, systematic, and sufficient procedure for evaluating the performance of Seismic Force Resisting Systems (SFRSs) and to determine the appropriate ductilityrelated (Rd) and over-strength related (Ro) force modification factors for implementation in the National Building Code of Canada (NBC). The procedure relies on the application of non-linear dynamic analysis for quantification of the seismic performance of the SFRS. Note that the procedure is also suitable for assessing force modification factors (RdRo values) of systems already implemented in the NBC.
The audience for this guideline are those (called the “project study team” in this document) who submit proposals for new SFRSs with defined RdRo values to the NBC for inclusion in Subsection 4.1.8., Earthquake Loads and Effects, of Division B of the NBC. This guideline can also be used by a team performing an alternative design solution for a specific project and seeking acceptance from authority having jurisdiction. In such cases, not all aspects of this guideline (e.g., having different archetypes) will be needed.
The latest developments in seismic design philosophy in modern urban centers have moved towards the development of new types of so called “resilient” or “low damage” structural systems. Such systems reduce the damage to the structure during an earthquake while offering the same or higher levels of safety to occupants. One such structural system in mass timber construction is the “Pres-Lam” system developed by Structural Timber Innovation Company (STIC) and Prestressed Timber Limited (PTL), both from New Zealand. FPInnovations has acquired the Intellectual Property rights for the Pres-Lam system for use in Canada and the United States.
Steel-timber hybrid structural systems offer a modern solution for building multi-story structures with more environmentally-friendly features. This paper presents a comprehensive seismic performance assessment for a kind of multi-story steel-timber hybrid structure. In such a hybrid structure, steel moment resisting frames are infilled with prefabricated light wood frame shear walls to serve as the lateral load resisting system (LLRS). In this paper, drift-based performance objectives under various seismic hazard levels were proposed based on experimental observations. Then, a numerical model of the hybrid structure considering damage accumulation and stiffness degradation was developed and verified by experimental results, and nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted to establish a database of seismic responses. The numerical results further serve as a technical basis for estimating the structure's fundamental period and evaluating post-yielding behavior and failure probabilities of the hybrid structure under various seismic hazard levels. A load sharing parameter was defined to describe the wall-frame lateral force distribution, and a formula was proposed and calibrated by the time-history analytical results to estimate the load sharing parameter. Moreover, earthquake-induced non-structural damage and residual deformation were also evaluated, showing that if designed properly, desirable seismic performance with acceptable repair effort can be obtained for the proposed steel-timber hybrid structural system.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is gaining popularity in residential and non-residential applications in the North American construction market. CLT is very effective in resisting lateral forces resulting from wind and seismic loads. This research investigated the in-plane performance of CLT shear wall for platform-type buildings under lateral loading. Analytical models were proposed to estimate the in-plane stiffness of CLT wall panels with openings based on experimental and numerical investigations. The models estimate the in-plane stiffness under consideration of panel thickness, aspect ratios, and size and location of the openings. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to reduce the number of model parameters to those that have a significant impact on the stiffness reduction of CLT wall panels with openings. Finite element models of CLT wall connections were developed and calibrated against experimental tests. The results were incorporated into models of CLT single and coupled shear walls. Finite element analyses were conducted on CLT shear walls and the results in terms of peak displacements, peak loads and energy dissipation were in good agreement when compared against full-scale shear wall tests. A parametric study on single and coupled CLT shear walls was conducted with variation of number and type of connectors. The seismic performance of 56-single and 40-coupled CLT shear walls’ assembles for platform-type construction were evaluated. Deflection formulas were proposed for both single and coupled CLT shear walls loaded laterally in-plane that in addition to the contributions of CLT panels and connections, also account for the influence of adjacent perpendicular walls and floors above and illustrated with examples. Analytical equations were proposed to calculate the resistance of CLT shear walls accounting for the kinematic behaviour of the walls observed in experimental investigations (sliding, rocking and combined sliding-rocking) and illustrated with examples. Different configurations (number and location of hold-downs) of single and coupled CLT walls were considered. The findings presented in this thesis will contribute to the scientific body of knowledge and furthermore will be a useful tool for practitioners for the successful seismic design of CLT platform buildings in-line with the current CSA O86 provisions.
