University of Nevada, Reno
Sponsored Projects
Research and Innovation
1664 North Virginia Street
204 Ross Hall MS 325
Reno, NV 89557-0325
775-784-4040
A landmark shake table test of a 10-story mass timber building will be conducted in late 2020. The test program, funded by other sources, will help accelerate the adoption of economically competitive tall timber buildings by validating the seismic performance of a resilient cross-laminated timber (CLT) rocking wall system. In this project, we leverage and extend the test program by including critical nonstructural components and systems (NCS). Including NCSs, which are most vulnerable to rocking induced deformations of the CLT core, allows investigation of the ramification of this emerging structural type on building resiliency. Quantifying interactions amongst vertically and horizontally spanning NCSs during earthquake shaking will allow designers to develop rational design strategies for future installation of such systems. The expected research outcomes are to expand knowledge of rocking wall system interactions with various NCS, identify NCS vulnerabilities in tall timber buildings, and develop solutions to address these vulnerabilities. Moreover, this effort will greatly increase visibility of the test program. The results of this research will be widely disseminated to timber design and NCS communities through conference presentations, online webinars, and distribution to publicly accessible research repositories.
Specific goals and objectives for this project include:
1. Work with industry to design, install and monitor the seismic performance of representative drift and acceleration sensitive NCSs to complement the testing of the 10-story building.
2. Quantify the relation between ground shaking level, structural responses (drifts and accelerations) and performance of the NCS, and overall quantification of building resilience.
3. Disseminate research findings widely to the timber design and NCS expert communities
