A Case Study on Medium and High Rise Timber Buildings
Abstract
Heavy timber is the upcoming and rising star in the construction industry in the European and north American market. However, this topic is yet to be discovered. Light frame wood LFW has been used for decades but was always restricted to certain limits. Limits that heavy timber can overcome easily. In this thesis, topics related to the application of heavy timber in the construction of buildings are searched. First, a comparative study based on the Canadian market discussing the alternatives heavy timber can offer such as glulam and cross laminated timber (CLT) in comparison with LFW when applied to mid-rise buildings. Different heavy timber structural systems were designed to have equal stiffness as the relative LFW building while achieving all the strength requirements, a cost comparison is carried out between the varying heavy timber systems and the LFW system based on the Canadian market. Second, an investigation is held based on the performance-based design concept for a 19-story glulam building, with a moment resisting frame as a structural system. The building is numerically modeled and exposed to real wind loads obtained from the Boundary layer wind tunnel laboratory (BLWTL). The moment connection shared characteristics based on tests conducted in the literature on a small moment connection. The wind loads are extracted from a previously tested rigid model at the BLWTL, and a time history analysis is performed. Following the time history analysis, decomposition of the wind components is conducted and a reduction factor is applied to the resonant component. A modified time history response is reapplied to the building and the new straining actions are evaluated. The connection’s hysteresis behavior is evaluated after applying the reduction factor. Furthermore, A parametric study is performed for two damping values. This thesis provides a conclusive study between heavy timber and LFW that discusses the ability of heavy timber to replace the LFW in commercial buildings. Also, it demonstrates the capabilities of heavy timber buildings to resist lateral loads such as wind loads in high altitudes granted that it is provided with an adequate structural system and a ductile connection that can dissipate the energy implied on it properly.