Modelling of timber buildings connections

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Wood is a renewable material so its use in construction provides many environmental benefits. However, when used in the construction of medium and high-rise buildings, light frame wood (LFW) systems, typically employed in houses, do not have enough strength to resist the applied environmental loads. An alternative material with advanced mechanical properties that could overcome the limitations of LFW is heavy timber. As the industry's goals shift to construct buildings that are more environmentally friendly, the demand for heavy timber is increasing. The connections between various elements, such as between beams and columns, and between the walls and the floors, are the challenging components of a heavy timber building. Those connections, which are usually made of steel, need to have enough strength and stiffness so timber buildings would achieve satisfactory performance under the loads resulting from strong wind and seismic events. In this proposal, detailed finite element (stress analysis) computer models, which simulate all parts of the connections including the timber components, the steel plates, the fasteners and the interaction between the timber and the steel, will be developed. An outcome of this research will be the development of standard connections that are compatible with different sizes of timber elements and forces that the connections can experience due to various environmental loads acting on timber buildings. Two Ontario companies will contribute to this research; Hassco a Steel Fabrication company and IE Design a Consulting Engineering Firm. A joint venture will be formed between Hassco and IE Design in this application where timber buildings will be designed by IE Design based on the connections produced by Hassco. The research will contribute to the spread of the use of heavy timber in the construction of high-rise buildings replacing concrete and steel. In addition to the environmental benefits, this will provide great advantages for Canada as one of the largest wood producing countries in the world. There is global demand to increase the use of natural materials in construction in order to limit carbon emission. Consequently, this research will be also of great impact internationally.