A full‑scale, six‑storey mass timber–steel hybrid fitted with self-centring rocking timber walls and resilient steel framing withstood 240 shake‑table simulations at UC San Diego, researchers report, bolstering the case for taller, damage‑limited timber construction.
Published in the Journal of Structural Engineering yesterday, the NHERI@UCSD Converging Design team spent nine months building and instrumenting the specimen to test a mass timber self-centring rocking wall (SCRW) system in one axis and a steel frame with a concentrically braced frame (MF/CBF) in the other.
The SCRW paired mass-timber panels and bounding columns with U-shaped flexural plates for energy dissipation and post-tensioned rods to recenter the wall; the steel frame utilised conventional wide-flange sections with replaceable fuses to confine inelastic demand. Timber products formed diaphragms, beams and columns, while steel gravity connections were detailed to accommodate up to 5% rotation with minimal damage.
The researchers subjected the hybrid building to simulated earthquakes across multiple configurations, including motions scaled to the risk‑targeted maximum considered earthquake. The team reported the building “suffered virtually no structural damage” and that “after each one we could walk right back into the building,” underscoring repeatable, repairable performance.
“If there’s a big earthquake, we want buildings to protect people, but the buildings themselves are often structurally compromised and have to be torn down,” said Andre Barbosa, the Cecil and Sally Drinkward Professor in Structural Engineering. Barbosa, which last year said the team could “replace six‑story walls and still have a resilient structure that could sustain another 20, 40, or 60 earthquakes.”
The tests were conducted at the NHERI@UCSD outdoor shake-table facility, with support from the National Science Foundation, the TallWood Design Institute, and multiple industry partners. Test data are archived in the DesignSafe repository (project ID PRJ‑5736) to enable model calibration and further study. These results provide regulators and designers with concrete evidence to inform code updates and resilience planning, thereby strengthening the argument for taller mass-timber buildings in seismic regions.
For further information: Shake‑Table Testing of a Full‑Scale Six‑Story Resilient Mass Timber–Steel Hybrid Building, Tanner Field et al., Journal of Structural Engineering, Volume 151, Issue 12; https://doi.org/10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-15036..
