A hybrid wooden structural system for the next generation of sustainable and resilient buildings

Abstract

The development of innovative engineered wood products (EWPs) has greatly increased the possibility of using timber as structural material, opening new markets in the construction sectors, such as multi-storey residential buildings and collective (e.g. schools) buildings. Despite a revival of popularity of the entire wood sector, timber structures still face constraints and limitations that they need to overcome to offer new opportunities for green buildings. The use of timber structures primarily confined to low- and mid-rise buildings, the poor efficiency and optimization in the use of wood in buildings made with mass timber panels, the production process of EWPs linked strongly to big wood industries and not still affordable for small local companies, the limited attention to the dismantling process and re-use of timber structural elements are some examples of such limitations. In order to overcome existing constraints in the timber sector, the HyWood4buildings project proposes a novel hybrid wooden structural system composed of two separate but interacting wooden structural systems: 1) a solid-sawn wall system (SoN-Wall), designed primarily to resist gravitational loads, and 2) an innovative hybrid steel-timber composite lateral load resisting (HyST-LaR) system, designed to ensure the stability and resilience of taller buildings under lateral loads. The HyWood4building system aims to combine the structural performance of EWPs with the advantages of using local and readily available solid-sawn components, in order to: 1) develop an innovative high-performance wooden structural system capable of resisting high lateral loads in taller timber buildings; 2) optimize the use of EWPs thanks to a smart combination of mass timber panels and solid-sawn structural elements; 3) support the development of local supply chains through a larger, yet efficient, use of solid-sawn structural elements; 4) assess and exploit new opportunities from the dismantling and re-use of timber structural elements. The research activity will be developed in six working packages (WPs). The limits and potentialities of existing wood-based structural systems adopted in the construction of multi-storey buildings will be investigated in WP1 and two case studies will be identified. The design of the HyWood4buildings structural system will be carried out in WP2, implementing an innovative multi-objective approach. Experimental tests at component (i.e. connections and solid-sawn wall system) and system level (HyST-LaR) will be conducted in WP3 and WP4, respectively, in order to evaluate the mechanical performances of the proposed structural system. Within the WP5, advanced numerical analyses will be conducted for the update of the prediction models and the optimisation of the proposed structural system. The activities for the project management, dissemination and communication will be included in WP6.

Team di ricerca UNIBO

Pozza Luca, Ferretti Francesca

Partner di progetto

Principal Investigator Casagrande Daniele - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Giongo Ivan – Università degli Studi di TRENTO