Development of Timber Buckling Restrained Brace for Mass Timber-Braced Frames

This research presents the development of a mass timber buckling restrained brace (T-BRB) that combines a low yield strength steel core with a mass timber casing to create a new ductile fuse. The T-BRB is an essential element of a mass timber buckling restrained braced frame (BRBF), which is a promising mass timber wood lateral force–resisting system. Critical elements of T-BRB design that are important for good performance include casing stiffness, casing material, number and spacing of bolts, timber spacer and casing gap, steel core yield strength, and friction between steel core and casing interface. Compressive tests on engineered wood blocks using glued laminated timber, laminated veneer lumber, parallel strand lumber, and mass plywood panel (MPP) were conducted to determine elastic stiffness, maximum load, and ultimate displacement. MPP loaded parallel to the wide face of laminations ($X$-direction) outperformed other materials with respect to high elastic stiffness, which is an important property of the casing because it controls buckling of the steel core. Six 3.66 m (12 ft)–long T-BRBs with a targeted yield strength of 274 kN (61.5 kip) were tested utilizing three T-BRB casing designs with varying MPP lamination layups. A 3.9% strain was achieved under a strain-based loading protocol. For a fatigue-based loading protocol, after two cycles at 2.0% strain, more than 26 additional cycles at 1.5% strain were attained. The hysteresis curves for all six T-BRBs remained stable throughout the tests and the cumulative inelastic deformation exceeded two times the value required by the standard.