Long term monitoring and field testing of an innovative multi-storey timber building

Piotr Omenzetter, Hugh Morris, Margaret Worth, Varun Kohli, S R Uma

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
10 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

An innovative three-story timber building, using self-centering, post-tensioned timber shear walls as the main horizontal load resisting system and lightweight composite timber-concrete floors, has recently been completed in Nelson, New Zealand. It is expected to be the trailblazer for similar but taller structures to be more widely adopted. Performance based standards require an advanced understanding of building responses and in order to meet the need for in-situ performance data the building has been subjected to forced vibration testing and instrumented for continuous monitoring using a total of about 90 data channels to capture its dynamic and long-term responses. The first part of the paper presents a brief discussion of the existing research on the seismic performance of timber frame buildings and footfall induced floor vibrations. An outline of the building structural system, focusing on the novel design solutions, is then discussed. This is followed by the description of the monitoring system. The paper emphasizes the need for optimal placement of a limited number of sensors and demonstrates how this was achieved for monitoring floor vibrations with the help of the effective independence-driving point residue (EfI-DPR) technique. A novel approach to the EfI-DPR method proposed here uses a combinatorial search algorithm that increases the chances of obtaining the globally optimal solution. Finally, the results from the forced vibration tests conducted on the whole building at different construction stages are reviewed.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2011
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of SPIE
EditorsH. Felix Wu
PublisherSPIE
Volume7983
ISBN (Print)9780819485458
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Apr 2011

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