The long term instrumentation of a timber building in Nelson NZ: the need for standardization

High quality data on building performance is needed as timber is increasingly used for medium and large commercial, industrial and multi-residential structures in New Zealand and around the world. Timber buildings 6 to 9 storeys high have been constructed in Germany, England, Canada and Sweden. In New Zealand we expect a 3 storey post-tensioned building in Nelson will be the trailblazer for taller structures here. Performance based standards require an understanding of building response at a range of serviceability levels as well as for life safety.
Large scale earthquake shake table experiments, such as those undertaken in the USA, Italy and Japan, provide very good initial response data for timber structures (Filiatrault, Christovasilis et al. 2010). Multi-storey timber structures in seismic regions are designed for structural ductility with the response analysis based on assumptions for damping which will be different from the laboratory to fully fitted out buildings. It is important that monitoring is used to collect in-situ performance data, particularly in seismic areas, to provide a solid basis for standards for a range of fully finished structures.
For long span structures the timber deformation is a significant serviceability design parameter so the long term deformations need to be predictable. Monitoring provides understanding of the reliability of these design values.
Instrumentation of buildings takes considerable effort and standardisation is necessary to maximise the comparability of data. Timber has a smaller research base than the major structural materials so early standardisation will maximise the international usefulness of a performance database. Monitoring is discussed in reference to the GNS Science GeoNet network and the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) timber building in Nelson and is used to pose the challenge as to how to develop a standard approach for wider application.