DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL JOINT SYSTEM FOR MID-TO-HIGHRISE CLT WALL BUILDINGS IN SEISMIC REGIONS

In Japan, the possibility of multi-story timber buildings is not yet practiced at a large scale due to the complex structural design process and construction cost. In conventional CLT buildings in Japan, a high number of complex steel connections are required. In this practice, complex processing of CLTs panel is also required. The objective of this paper is to propose easy-to-apply and easy-to-design steel joints. The proposed joint is designed to resist both shear and tensile forces to reduce complex steel parts. Single-bolt element tension tests were conducted to investigate the effect of the fibre direction, bolt diameter, and bolt embedded length. Cyclic loading for single and coupled CLT walls with the proposed joints was also conducted. The failure characteristics and strength of single-bolt connections could be predicted by the ratio of bolt embedded length and diameter. The fibre direction was found to have a minor effect on the connection strength. The proposed joint system showed high strength and ductility as found by the cyclic loading. The lateral strength of a wall with two panels was double the single wall case, indicating the lack of interaction between the two panels