New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Conference
Research Status
Complete
Notes
March 21-23, 2014, Auckland, New Zealand
Summary
The paper presents the design and construction detailing of the quasi-static testing of two post-tensioned timber wall systems: a single (more traditional) wall system and a new configuration comprising of a column-wall-column coupled system (CWC). The latter allows avoiding displacement incompatibilities issues between the wall and the diaphragm by using the boundary columns as supports.
Different reinforcement configurations were taken into account for both the wall systems; the walls were subjected to different initial post-tensioning stress levels, and different dissipater options were considered: both internal and external replaceable mild steel tension-compression yield fuses, and U-shape Flexural Plates (UFPs) were used for the single wall and the CWC solutions respectively.
The experimental results showed the high-performance of both post-tensioned timber wall systems with negligible level of structural damage in the wall element and residual displacements and high level of dissipation.