Performance and design of LVL walls coupled with UFP dissipaters

This article presents recent research on the seismic resistance of coupled post-tensioned timber walls for use in multi-story buildings. The walls are constructed from laminated veneer lumber (LVL), post-tensioned with unbonded vertical tendons, and coupled together with mild steel U-shaped flexural plates (UFPs) as energy dissipating elements. The timber wall design follows the same principles as used for post-tensioned precast concrete wall systems, using U-shaped plates to obtain a “hybrid” system, where energy is dissipated through yielding of the plates, while the vertical post-tensioning provides the restoring force. In this project, the same principles are applied to timber coupled walls. A series of quasi-static cyclic and pseudo-dynamic tests have been carried out to verify the applicability of the concept and the feasibility of the construction technology in timber buildings. The U-shaped plates showed stable energy dissipation characteristics and, in combination with the post-tensioning, desirable re-centering hysteretic behavior typically referred to as “flag-shape”. Because of the simplicity of these elements and the low cost of implementation, they have good prospects for practical application.