Pres-Lam in the US the seismic design of the Peavy Building at Oregon State University

In recent years, timber has become increasinglypopular as a construction material for multi-storeyopen-plan buildings. The demand for flexibility withinthe building plan creates the need to create strongconnections to resist lateral loads.Pres-Lam systems provide a resilient and efficientway of connecting structural elements and creatinghigh-strength joints. The system was first developedin the 2000s (Palermo et al., 2005) and extended fromthe PRESSS systems (Priestley, 1996), and provides acombination of re-centering and energy dissipation.This allows the post-event residual deformations to belimited and to reduce of lateral load demand throughhysteretic damping.The paper presented the design of the Peavy buildingat Oregon State University. As a College of Forestrybuilding, the structure was intended to celebrateand showcase the timber. The gravity load resistingsystem of the structure consists of a timber-concreteNEW ZEALAND TIMBER DESIGN » JOURNAL VOL 25· ISSUE 2 17composite structure using Cross-Laminated Timber(CLT) panels supported by a glulam frame. Pres-Lam walls provide the lateral load resistance in thetwo directions. The system allows for reparabilityafter a design-level earthquake and also permitteda significant reduction in the number of lateral loadresisting elements.The lateral load design of the structure was performedthrough seismic response history procedure inaccordance to ASCE 7-10. Numerical results haveshown that the system fully re-centered after theearthquake records and provided hysteretic dampingto the system allowing the reduction of the buildingdemand.Higher mode effects had a significant influence on thelateral load response of the building, and resulted inthe amplification of shear force and bending momentin the walls panels. This mostly affected the designof the structural details (i.e. diaphragm connections).