Welcome to NHERI Tall Wood Project
The first Paper on the 10-story test result is out!
The first summary journal paper on the 10-story test program is now available for free download at ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering @this link.
Codification of mass timber rocking wall underway
TallWood tests showed a viable pathway for "Earthquake-Proof" tall wood buildings. But can a normal design firm do this? Supported by U.S. Forest Services (Wood Innoations Fund) and CHarles Pankow Foundation, we are conducting a FEMA P695 study to obtain seismic design parameters for the post-tensioned mass timber rocking wall lateral system so it can be included in future ASCE7 as a prescribed lateral system for anyone to adopt.
A new section was added to this website. Codification page will be used to provide info and updates on the P695 study on the rocking wall lateral system.
Deconstruction of the top 4 floors Completed!
With all testing program completed, the building has endured about 150 earthquakes without structural damage or residual deformation. Damage to Non-structural components is also minimal.
The top 4 stories of the building is dissembled, leaving the 6-story building for additional testing by another project led by Oregon State University. More tests to come!
All TallWood tests completed!
Press Release for NHERI TallWood Project is now available HERE
TallWood Project Newsletters will be published as project progresses. Download them via the links on the right side column!
Construction of the 10-story test building has started at NHERI@UCSD site. Multi-camera streaming of the construction site can be seen with this link
Live stream of Construction at NHERI@UCSD
Completed building as of March, 2023.
Construction progress as of early September, 2022.
Final design of the test building has been completed, with procurement of material on-going. Majority of the material has been procured, thanks to NSF support and generous donation from our Partners. The construction is underway and expect to complete by December.
The Planned 2022 Full-Scale Test
(Non-structural components not shown here for clarity)
Design of the test building has been completed. Basic info on the building can be downloaded HERE.
Note the building will be finished with non-structural components and envelope, currently only the structural members are shown in the gravity design. The objective of sharing the gravity design is to solicit interested partners for collaboration and pay-load testing.
If you are interested in participating in the test or having your products tested with the building, please review the gravity design and contact the PI to discuss further.
See NHERI TallWood Project K-12 Outreach Brochure developed in collaboration with Futurum.
The planned test building with non-structural component is illustrated in the Figure below:
The following are information from Two-story test conducted in 2017
- A good INTERVIEW on the investigative 2-story building test in 2017 at NHERI@UCSD
- Shake table test Footage of the 2-story mass timber building test.
- Experimental Data from the Two-story test is now published at NHERI Design-Safe CI. Please use following references if you are using the data:
Pei, S., van de Lindt, J., Barbosa, A., Dolan, J., Berman, J., (2019-05-24) "Two-Story Wood Building Test", in Shake Table Test of A Two-story Mass Timber Building with Post-tensioned Rocking Walls. DesignSafe-CI. Link.
Pei, S., van de Lindt, J., Barbosa, A., Berman, J., McDonnell, E., Dolan, J., Blomgren, H., Zimmerman, R., Huang, D., Wichman, S. (2019) “Experimental seismic response of a resilient two-story mass timber building with post-tensioned rocking walls” ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering. Link
NHERI Tallwood project is an NSF-funded research effort to develop and validate a resilient-based seismic design methodology for tall wood buildings. The project started in September 2016 and will last till 2020. The project team will validate the design methodology through shake table testing of a 10-story full-scaled wood building specimen at NHERI@UCSD. It will be the world's largest wood building tested at full-scale.
An NSF-funded planning project was completed in 2016 and provided the conceptual and technical preparation of this project. More information about the planning project and its (downloadable) deliverables can be found here: NEES Tall Wood Planning Project
Tall Wood Building Example: Framework Project
Full Scale 2-story building test at NHERI@UCSD in 2017
Details HERE.
Test Building at NHERI@UCSD (7/2/2017)
