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1. Natural Hazards Research Summit 2022: Establishing Fragility Curves for Seismic Resilience of Mass Timber Buildings with Self-Centering Cross-Laminated Timber Shear Walls

   https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-7we3-6106  

   Amer, Alia; Ricles, James; Sause, Richard (January 2023, Designsafe-CI)

   Driven by demand for sustainable buildings and a reduction in construction time, mass timber buildings, specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT), is being more widely used in mid-rise buildings in the US. Low damage post-tensioned self-centering (SC) CLT shear walls (SC-CLT walls) provide an opportunity to develop seismically resilient CLT buildings. Previous research focused primarily on the lateral-load response under unidirectional loading of isolated self-centering timber walls, without considering the interaction with the adjacent building structural components, i.e., the floor diaphragms, collector beams, and gravity load system. Buildings response under seismic loading is multidirectional and there are concerns that multidirectional loading may be more damaging to SC-CLT wall panels and the adjacent building structural components than unidirectional loading, which affects the potential seismic resilience of buildings with SC-CLT walls. A series of lateral-load tests of a 0.625-scale timber sub-assembly was conducted at the NHERI Lehigh Large-Scale Multi-Directional Hybrid Simulation Experimental Facility to investigate the the lateral-load response and damage of SC-CLT walls and the capability of the adjacent building structural components i.e., the floor diaphragms, collector beams, and gravity load system to accommodate the building response and the controlled-rocking of the SC-CLT walls under multidirectional lateral loading. 

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2. Experimental Response and Damage of SC-CLT Shear Walls under Multidirectional Cyclic Lateral Loading

   https://doi.org/10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-12576  

   Amer, Alia; Sause, Richard; Ricles, James (February 2024, Journal of Structural Engineering)

   This paper presents an experimental study on the multidirectional cyclic lateral-load response of post-tensioned self-centering (SC) cross-laminated timber (CLT) shear walls. SC-CLT shear wall damage states are introduced and qualitatively defined in terms of the repairs needed to restore the lateral-load response of the SC-CLT wall. A comparison between SC-CLT wall damage states under unidirectional (in-plane) and multidirectional (in-plane and out-of-plane) lateral loading is presented. The experimental results show that the initiation of SC-CLT wall damage occurs at smaller story drifts under multidirectional loading compared to unidirectional loading. Engineering demand parameters (EDPs) are used to quantify the SC-CLT wall damage states. Uncertainty in the EDP value when a damage state occurs is considered and quantified. Using the experimental results, component (i.e., a CLT wall panel corner) and system (i.e., an entire SC-CLT wall) fragility functions are developed and presented. 

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3. Multi-Directional Cyclic Response of Self-Centering Cross-Laminated Timber Shear Walls

   Amer, A. (July 2022, Proceedings of the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering)

   This paper presents an experimental study on the multi-directional cyclic lateral-load response of post-tensioned self-centering (SC) cross-laminated timber (CLT) shear walls. The SC-CLT wall damage states are introduced and qualitatively defined in terms of the level of effort needed to repair the wall to restore its initial functional state. A comparison between SC-CLT wall damage states under unidirectional and multi-directional loading is presented. The experimental test results show that the SC-CLT wall damage state initiation occurs at lower story-drifts under multi-directional loading compared to unidirectional loading. The SC-CLT wall damage states are quantified in terms of the engineering demand parameter (EDP) defined as wall story-drift. Fragility functions that relate the conditional probability of the occurrence of a selected damage state at a wall corner to the EDP are developed. The results reinforce the observations that multi-directional loading on the CLT shear walls causes more damage that unidirectional loading. 

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4. From Testing to Codification: Post-tensioned Cross Laminated Timber Rocking Walls

   Pei, S.; Dolan, J.; Zimmerman, R.; McDonnell, E.; Line, p.; Popovski, P. (October 2019, Proceedings of the International Network for Timber Engineering Research (INTER))

   Blass, Hans (Ed.)

   Wood buildings in North American has been predominantly constructed using light-framed wood systems since early 1900’s, with only limited exception of heavy timber construction in some non-residential applications. This situation is likely to change in the future with the growing acceptance of mass timber construction in the region. In fact, a number of mass timber buildings have been constructed in recent years in the U.S. and Canada, including low- to mid-rise mixed-use buildings (e.g. UMass Student Center, T3 building) and tall towers (e.g. Brocks Commons at UBC). Most of these buildings utilized cross laminated timber (CLT) or nail laminated timber (NLT) floors and heavy timber framing systems to support gravity loads, and a non-wood lateral system such as concrete shear walls or a braced steel frame to resist wind and seismic loads. Although CLT material and glulam products have been recognized in the U.S. and Canada (IBC (2018) and NBCC (2015), there is currently no mass timber lateral systems in the U.S. and only one system (platform style panelized CLT shear wall) in Canada that is currently recognized by the building codes. As a result, special design procedures and review/approval processes must be followed for any building intended to use a mass timber lateral system. There is a need to promote codification of mass timber lateral systems in order to help further develop mass timber building market in North American. At the time of this paper, there has been an on-going effort to devel-op seismic design parameters for panelized CLT shear walls in the U.S. (ref) following the FEMA P695 procedure for platform construction. The other lateral system that at-tracted significant attention and research resources is post-tensioned CLT rocking wall system, which has the potential to be applicable to balloon framed low-rise to tall wood buildings. This paper will focus on recent research development on CLT rocking wall system in the U.S. and the effort to develop a seismic design procedure for this system for inclusion in the NDS Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SPDWS)(2008). While the expensive and time consuming process of the FEMA P695 process would provide the ability to use the equivalent lateral force method for design purposes, this path is not part of the discussion included here. 

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5. Experimental Seismic Test of Drywall Partition Walls with Improved Detailing for Damage Reduction

   Ryan, K.; Hasani, H. (July 2020, The 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering)

   null (Ed.)

   Drywall partition walls are susceptible to damage at low-level drifts, and hence reducing such damage is key to achieving seismic resiliency in buildings. Prior tests on drywall partition walls have shown that slip track connection detailing leads to better performance than other detailing, such as fully-fixed connections. However, in all prior testing, partition wall performance was evaluated using a unidirectional loading protocol (either in-plane or out-of-plane) or in shake table testing. Moreover, all details are susceptible to considerable damage to wall intersections. Two phases of the test have been performed at the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Lehigh Equipment Facility to develop improved details of drywall partition walls under bidirectional loading. The partition walls were tested alongside a cross-laminated timber (CLT) post-tensioned rocking wall subassembly, wherein the CLT system is under development as a resilient lateral system for tall timber buildings. In the Phase 1, the slip behavior of conventional slip-track detailing was compared to telescoping detailing (track-within-a-track deflection assembly). In the Phase 2, two details for reducing the wall intersection damage were evaluated on traditional slip-track C-shaped walls. First, a corner gap detail was tested. This detail incorporates a gap through the wall intersection to reduce the collision damage at two intersecting walls. Second, a distributed gap detail was tested. In this approach, the aim was to reduce damage by using more frequent control joints through the length of the wall. All walls were tested under a bidirectional loading protocol with three sub-cycles: in-plane, a bi-directional hexagonal load path, and a bi-directional hexagonal load path with an increase in the out-of-plane drift. This loading protocol allows for studying the bidirectional behavior of walls and evaluating the effect of out-of-plane drift on the partition wall resisting force. In the Phase 1, the telescoping detailing performed better than conventional slip track detailing because it eliminated damage to the framing. In Phase 2, the distributed gap detailing delayed damage to about 1% story drift. For the corner gap detailing, the sacrificial corner bead detached at low drifts, but the wall itself was damage-free until 2.5% drift. Bidirectional loading was found to have an insignificant influence on the in-plane resistance of the walls, and the overall resistance of the walls was trivial compared to the CLT rocking. 

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