Read the full article by Brooke Fisher on the Civil & Environmental Engineering news page. Start reading below…
“It may sound like a tall order: a seismically resilient and sustainable mid-rise building constructed entirely out of timber. But a team of researchers is proving that this is indeed feasible by testing the tallest structure to date, a 10-story building designed to withstand Seattle-area earthquakes.
“There’s a need in urban areas like Seattle for mid-rise buildings, and similar things are happening in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland,” says CEE Professor Jeffrey Berman, a principal investigator on the project. “We are trying to make these new developments more sustainable and seismically resilient.”
The project is paving the way for more widespread use of mass timber — layers of wood bonded together — in taller structures, particularly in earthquake-prone regions. Researchers from across the country gathered in early May to test the 10-story building at one of the world’s largest shake tables at the University of California San Diego. The project breaks ground on numerous fronts. Not only is it the world’s tallest building to be tested on a shake table, but the structure is crafted entirely out of timber, including a unique rocking wall system designed by the UW team.
“Mass timber is a new material, so we are testing it in a taller building as a proof of concept and to study if this is actually feasible — there aren’t any buildings in the world that are 10 stories and have structural systems made entirely of timber,” says CEE Ph.D. student Sarah Wichman.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) TallWood project is a collaborative effort between university researchers and engineering firms. The UW team includes Berman, Wichman and master’s student Davis Wright. They are collaborating with lead institution Colorado School of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno, Colorado State University, Washington State University, University of California San Diego, Oregon State University and Lehigh University. Local industry partners include KPFF Consulting Engineers and LEVER Architecture.
