ABSTRACT

Most of the buildings constructed from wood and wood-based materials are low-rise, li ghtframe structures. Application of tim ber in medium-rise buildings is rare for variety of reasons that span fro m low-level of education and expe rience necessary in using wood in structures t o restrictions contained in the building c odes. One of the concerns expressed in many regulatory guidelines is the fire resist ance of woo d, which is considered as a flammable material. While large wood sections (such as lam inated members) have relatively high fire resistance concerns remain with connections between the members that almost exclusively use steel. Wood structures are excellent candidates for applications in areas with high seism ic activity due to high relative strength (strength-to-mass ratio) of wood that exceeds that of reinforced concrete and steel (Kasal 2012). Previous work on seismic performance of heavy wood lam inated frames (Kasal et al. 2004, Heiduschke et al. 2009) demonstrated several important findings: 1. Laminated wood frames can have high energy dissipation capability.