Sumitomo announced that it will participate in the NHERI Tall Wood Project, which includes a shake table test of a full-scale 10-storey wood building expected to happen in June 2022 on the NHERI (Natural Hazard Engineering Research Infrastructure) outdoor shake table facility at University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the United States. Source: Timberbiz
This will be the first shake table testing of a full-scale 10-storey wood building in the world.
Colorado School of Mines leads the planning for the NHERI Tall Wood Project with grants from the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF).
The building for the test will use post tensioned seismic resistance technology and validate earthquake resistance and construction technologies of medium and high-rise wooden structures.
The International Building Code (IBC), which forms the basis of the building codes of many local jurisdictions in the United States, was updated last year, allowing the construction of wooden structures up to 18 storeys. This test is being conducted with the context of this revision.
UCSD’s outdoor shake table will be used to recreate the seismic waves observed during the Northridge Earthquake, which occurred in California in 1994 and actually shake the 10-storey wood building being tested to validate earthquake resistance.
Sumitomo Forestry will bear a portion of the test’s costs, and use the information and knowledge obtained as reference for seismic resistance design in Japan.
To achieve medium and large scale wooden architectural structures, Sumitomo Forestry has been researching post-tensioned seismic resistance technology since 2014. This technology was first adopted in the fire resistance verification building that was constructed at Tsukuba Research Institute in 2015. It was also adopted for Tsukuba Research Institute’s new research building completed in 2019.
This test will be the first step toward the promotion of non residential wood construction that contributes toward a decarbonized society. As wood construction gains attention in the move toward creating a decarbonized society, Sumitomo Forestry is promoting the W350 Plan.
Symbolized by a wooden high-rise building, this plan is a research and technological development roadmap aiming to realize a Timberized Eco City. Going forward, Sumitomo Forestry will continue to accelerate research and development to increase the value of wood.
More information about the tests is available at:
NHERI TallWood Project: http://nheritallwood.mines.edu/
UCSD shake table: http://nheri.ucsd.edu/
