Project Overview
As of 2024, there is only one CLT-based lateral system (CLT shear wall, with height limit of 65 ft) recognized by ASCE 7 seismic provisions. For tall mass timber buildings, no prescriptive mass timber lateral system is currently available for designers. This means that tall wood buildings will have to adopt a steel or concrete lateral system unless the design team elect to take the alternative system approach (PBSD), which unavoidly increases cost of such a design. This project is aimed at changing this situation by introducing the mass timber rocking wall lateral system into ASCE 7.
We will conduct a FEMA P-695 study to identify the seismic design parameters of the mass timber rocking wall system. Then a code-change proposal will be prepared and submitted to the Provision Update Committee of BSSC to be considered for the next update of ASCE7.
The project will be led by KPFF and Colorado School of Mines, sponsored by the Charles Pankow Foundation and USFS Wood Innovation program.
Project Team
Principal Investigators
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| Shiling Pei | Reid Zimmerman | ||
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Investigators and Advisory Team
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| Navid Rahgozar | Sarah Wichman | Omar Amini | Doug Rammer |
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| Marjan Popovski | Scott Breneman | ||
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Peer Review Team
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| Andre Barbosa | Eric McDonnell | Bill Tremayne | Jeffrey Berman |
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Industry Collaborator/Supporter
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| Philip Line | Steve Pryor | Ron Klemencic | Graham Montgomery |
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| Jeff Brink | Joe Maffei | Kevin Moore | Hans-Erik Blomgren |
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| Justin Brown | Lawrence Burkett | Dan Dolan | Marco Lo Ricco |
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| Ben Moerman | Emily Guglielmo | Peter Kelly | Iain Macdonald |
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| Stuart Harrison | |||
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Related Publications and Materials
Reference publications and materials used in this study:
| 1 | Prescriptive seismic design procedure for post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls | Journal of Structural Engineering | Link |
| 2 | Design Provisions for post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls (draft) | Research Report | Internal |
| 3 | Commentary for Design Provisions for post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls (draft) | Research Report | Internal |
| 4 | Prescriptive design example of post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls (draft) | Research Report | Internal |
Time Frame
The project started in January 2024. We expect a completed P-695 study by Summer 2025 in order to meet the ballotting deadlines for the ASCE 7-28 update cycle.
The NHERI TallWood project is supported by the National Science Foundation through a number of collaborative awards including: CMMI 1636164, CMMI 1634204, CMMI 1635363, CMMI 1635227, CMMI 1635156, CMMI 1634628. The use of NHERI experimental facility is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Program.
