Design and Cyclic Experiments of a Mass Timber Frame with a Timber Buckling Restrained Brace
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 10
Abstract
Mass timber buildings are increasing in popularity as the building industry aims to use more sustainable construction materials. A lateral force resisting system with a mass timber frame and a timber buckling restrained brace (TBRB) is presented as a possible solution to allow the expanded use of mass timber in buildings located in cities with high risk of natural hazards such as earthquakes and hurricanes. A series of nine quasi-static cyclic tests was completed to study the performance of the TBRB frame as well as the elastic performance of the bare mass timber frame. The variables studied included the level of axial force applied to the columns to simulate gravity load and the out-of-plane displacement of the TBRB frame. The mass timber frame was tested four times with a different TBRB. The four subassemblies achieved a drift ratio of at least 2.8% before failure of the TBRB due to weak axis buckling of the steel core. The maximum displacement ductility of the four TBRB frame subassemblies ranged from 3.1 to 3.5. The addition of the TBRB enhanced the energy dissipation capacity of the bare mass timber frame by 4.0 to 8.6 times after 14 cycles of lateral displacement.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models or code that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by Wood Innovations, under USDA Grant No. 20-DG-11046000-615. The authors also acknowledge the donation of materials by Freres Lumber Co., Inc., and CoreBrace LLC. The authors acknowledge the in-kind timber modeling and CNC fabrication assistance provided by Timberlab. The authors acknowledge the assistance of M. Bryant, D. Tran, D. Briggs, S. Neupane, and S. Shrestha of the University of Utah for their assistance in carrying out the experiments.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 10 • October 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 28, 2022
Accepted: May 30, 2023
Published online: Jul 26, 2023
Published in print: Oct 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 26, 2023
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Cited by
- Emily Williamson, Chris P. Pantelides, Hans-Erik Blomgren, Douglas Rammer, Nonlinear Models of Multistory Timber Frames with Timber Buckling-Restrained Braces, Journal of Structural Engineering, 10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-13137, 150, 9, (2024).
- Emily Williamson, Chris P. Pantelides, Hans-Erik Blomgren, Douglas Rammer, Seismic Performance of Timber Frames with Timber Buckling-Restrained Braces, Journal of Structural Engineering, 10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-12877, 150, 6, (2024).