Post-tensioned timber structures under wind and earthquake loading

Abstract

Post-tensioned timber connection with hardwood reinforcement has been developed at the IBK by Flavio Wanninger. The high stiffness and moment capacity of the connection opened a possibility to use the timber frames as lateral load resisting system of the low rise buildings.

As the timber solutions are becoming more and more popular, due to their positive environmental impact, further effort is invested in adapting the timber frames to the requirements of medium rise buildings. The critical point with application of the post-tensioned timber frames are large structural displacements, therefore the interest lies in increasing the lateral stiffness of the system.

The response to wind and seismic loads shall be studied in detail, including the interaction between different structural components. Design recommendations will be provided to allow the use of current standards, but also set the background for performance based design.    

Support

This project is kindly supported by Climate-KIC and the ETH-Foundation.