Seismic design of a current woodframe structure and study of innovative products and damping systems in wood construction

Abstract

Wood structures have seen resurgence in popularity over the past several decades, especially in Western States of America, such as California. The industry keeps creating new structural wood products of exceptional strength, versatility, and reliability. Woodframe structures offer a more sustainable answer, but need to be carefully detailed in high seismic zone. The objective of this work is to describe the seismic design of a current woodframe structure. Moreover, this thesis aims to present the innovation occurring in the market of wood construction. New engineered wood products are introduced as well as a review of the new developments and researches that are being made to incorporate damping systems such as viscoelastic and hysteretic dampers, in the ultimate goal of obtaining an optimum earthquake-resistant wood structure.