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UC timber wall innovation a leap forward for safety, construction and environment

Exciting new research has demonstrated cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls are feasible and cost-competitive with steel or concrete systems in low-rise buildings and offer significant environmental benefits.

Ben Moerman shows how the steel dowels in the specially designed connections bend to absorb seismic energy and prevent the walls from being significantly damaged or collapsing.

Associate Professor Li and his PhD student Ben Moerman have been testing large CLT shear walls in the UC Structural Engineering Laboratory to find out how these multi-storey walls behave in significant earthquakes.

“We loaded the walls horizontally to create a similar scenario of multi-storey CLT buildings in big earthquakes like the ones in Christchurch,” explains Associate Professor Li, who points out that the weight of timber is only one-fifth of concrete, meaning much lower earthquake loads, but engineered timber has similar strength as concrete.

“With the right connections, CLT buildings can be really strong and resilient in an earthquake.”

The research team designed innovative high capacity connections to resist earthquake forces and protect the integrity of the timber walls.

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