Ductile Connections for Cross-Laminated Timber Structures

Abstract eng:
Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) is a new generation of Engineered Wood Product that has been gaining increased interest within the construction industry over the last two decades. It is already well accepted in Europe and has been coming into the North American market in the last few years. There are a growing number of applications for CLT around the world including regions of high seismicity. It is therefore essential to develop design guidelines and standards to reduce the risk of potential serious problems in the future, particularly in respect of jointing for seismic applications. Significant research has been completed in Europe and North America on properties, structural behavior and sustainability aspects of CLT. But the research on the seismic considerations particularly on joining of the structural members to ensure ductile performance has been limited. This paper focuses on a detailed investigation of CLT joint design. The primary focus is to develop appropriate jointing methods for CLT panels in order to provide a system that will accommodate expected loads particularly seismic forces, conforms with building code requirements and suitable for the construction environment. Experience from similar engineered wood products is drawn into the current research. A new type of with jointed ductile connections through combination of post-tensioning and energy dissipating elements has been implemented for CLT members. The posttensioning ensures self-centering in addition to the ductility provided by additional energy dissipating elements within the connections. Extensive experimental and numerical investigation is currently underway to develop and test appropriate connections types for CLT building structures. Preliminary results indicate the concept has good prospect and behavior of the connections can be predicted with analytical and numerical work. Experimental program is planned next for validation of the models. The ultimate goad is to develop guidelines and recommendations for practical applications through further analysis and testing.

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