ABSTRACT

The growing use of timber structures in seismic regions has led to the development of numerous innovative construction s ystems using Cross-Laminated-Timber (CLT) walls or tim ber frames (platform frame and heavy frame). Despite this development, sei smic design practices remain incomplete. In particular a ppropriate force modification factors (q-factors) used for the design of innovative construction ty pologies need to be determ ined. Available seism ic codes provide the q-factor only for standard building ty pologies based on results fro m specific experimental cyclic loading tests that give an estimation of the ductility class, and therefore of the most suitable q-factor range. From a research point of vi ew there are essentially two methods for q-factor evaluation, with those being experimental and numerical approaches. On one hand both methods provide an accurate and precise estimation of q-factors, but on the other han d they are highly time-consuming, require large computational effort and are exp ensive. Moreover, they provide a good estimation of the q-factor applicable to specific investigations of buil dings, and therefore derived values are not reliably generalizabl e to other buildings. As stated by Ceccotti and Sandhaas (2010), developm ent of an effective procedure for q-factor evaluation is becoming more and more important.