Design and Construction of Prestressed Timber Buildings for Seismic Areas

A new and exciting method of timber construction has been presented. A 6-storey building design has frames in one direction and walls in the other. Post-tensioned prefabricated LVL timber beams, columns and walls are similar sizes to the original concrete design. Composite timber flooring is pre-fabricated. Gravity loading on the columns provides desirable re-centering, and energy dissipaters at wall and column bases give excellent seismic behaviour. Construction will be fast with costs kept to a minimum. The overall building costs are comparable to steel and concrete options. Based on testing and analysis to date, the feasibility of the post tensioned hybrid solution is evident.