Influence of wall assembly on behaviour of cross-laminated timber buildings

This paper describes a new wood-joint numerical model which applies commercial software and illustrates how it can be used for reliable estimation of appropriate behaviour factor (q) in multi-storey, cross-laminated timber buildings. The model is based on a macro-element approach and can reproduce the load–displacement hysteretic response of the steel–wood and wood–wood joints typically used in such structures. The panels are regarded as elastic and all non-linearities are assumed to take place in the connections, which are modelled by appropriate macro-elements. The model was calibrated and validated according to the results of cyclic shear wall tests and fullscale shake table tests. After validation, the model was used to carry out a parametric study to assess q values of three-storey buildings. Lastly, the influence of the two different wall assemblies on the building’s seismic response and q values was examined.