A holistic framework for designing for structural robustness in tall timber buildings

With the ever-increasing popularity of engineered wood products, larger and more complex structures made of timber have been built, such as new tall timber buildings of unprecedented height. Designing for structural robustness in tall timber buildings is still not well understood due the complex properties of timber and the difficulty in testing large assemblies, making the prediction of tall timber building behaviour under damage very difficult. This paper discusses briefly the existing state-of-the-art and suggests the next step in considering robustness holistically. Qualitatively, this is done by introducing the concept of scale, that is to consider robustness at multiple levels within a structure: in the whole structure, compartments, components, connections, connectors, and material. Additionally, considering both local and global exposures is key in coming up with a sound conceptual design. Quantitatively, the method to calculate the robustness index in a building is presented. A novel framework to quantify robustness and find the optimal structural solution is presented, based on the calculation of the scenario probability-weighted average robustness indices of various design options of a building. A case study example is also presented in the end

Robustness of tall timber buildings: an improved framework

With the popularity of tall timber buildings seeing an unprecedented increase in the last decade, structural robustness is becoming a critical topic of interest, given the complexity of these new structures. While there exist a number of measures to design robust structures, all of them focus on the system behaviour of the structural components. This paper takes a step back from the current robustness practice and discusses an improved framework using a multi-level scale approach. The framework is first demonstrated qualitatively with the conceptual design of a robust tall timber building. A quantification method is presented, which utilises an average robustness index for multiple damage scenarios and compares the cost effectiveness of various conceptual improvements against a starting design. The improved framework will allow the designer to make informed decisions to increase the robustness of any structure effectively