Engage Grants Program
Competition Year: 2019
Contact: Dr. Solomon Tesfamariam
Partners: Moses Structural Engineers Inc.
Summary
Over the past two decades there has been a growing interest among the construction stakeholders towards the use of timber as a primary structural material in low- and mid, and high-rise buildings. In this regard, Canada is a global leader in education, research, application, and manufacturing of structural timber. In 2016, the Canadian standard for engineering design in wood included new provisions for the design of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) structural systems (CSA O86-14). In general, CLT is relatively new material in the market and while advances have been made for the design of floors and wall assemblies using CLT, the development of practical solutions for CLT shear walls lags. The guidelines in CSA O86-14 for designing connection systems in CLT shear walls are difficult to understand and implement in daily design practices. Therefore, in this research proposal, it is aimed to investigate the lateral behavior of CLT shear wall systems (CLT panels together with their connections) to develop a practical guide that supplements the capacity-based design provisions of CSA O86-14. Once developed, designers and builders will be able to easily choose CLT shear walls and connection systems from the practical guide. In this way, prescribed CLT shear wall systems can become a cost-effective solution for buildings of all types of materials.