Wind-induced dynamic excitation is a governing design action determining size and shape of modern Tall Timber Buildings (TTBs). The wind actions generate dynamic loading, causing discomfort or annoyance for occupants due to the perceived horizontal sway, i.e. vibration serviceability problem. Although some TTBs have been instrumented and measured to estimate their key dynamic properties (eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and damping), no systematic evaluation of dynamic performance pertinent to wind loading had been performed for the new and evolving construction technologies used in TTBs. The DynaTTB project, funded by the ForestValue research program, mixed on site measurements on existing buildings excited by mass inertia shakers (forced vibration) and/or the wind loads (ambient vibration), for identification of the structural system, with laboratory identification of building elements mechanical features, coupled with numerical modelling of timber structures. The goal is to identify and quantify the causes of vibration energy dissipation in modern TTBs and provide key elements to finite element models. This paper presents an overview of the results of the project and the proposed Guidelines for design of TTBs in relation to their dynamic properties.

Thirty years of building with wood Sweden has a long tradition of building in wood. Today’s tall wooden buildings, often higher than two stories, are based on completely different technical solutions to the ones used historically. Modern wood construction is rooted in extensive international and national research and development – not on a single national tradition. It began simultaneously across Europe, as the rule change was part of an EU directive. Modern wood construction is also characterized by a high level of industrial prefabrication and short construction times, while modern IT is widely used in the planning and production process. Altogether, these factors entail a very different process from concept to completion, to the one used in the traditional construction industry. A whole host of factors determine the value of a building. It must be fit for purpose, sustainable and attractive. It should be eco-friendly and able to be erected and managed at a reasonable cost. Five different organizations have now been interviewed about their experiences and about the property management. All the interviewees are very positive to build, use and manage wooden buildings. Experience they have gathered by themselves and in cooperation with others give them the confidence to keep building with wood. They can meet every present and predicted demand by customers and governmental rule or regulation. The setbacks are few and easy to solve and interviewees can’t find any reason to not build in wood.

Although building systems made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) have become common in Sweden in the past 20 years and they have developed rapidly during the same period, steps remain to be taken to simplify the assembly of such systems, especially at construction sites. Current construction methods, however, remain labour-intensive and thus show room for improvement.

This paper describes a novel connection for the assembly of building elements made of CLT. Simple and inexpensive, the connection is fairly insensitive to manufacturing tolerances and enables rapid, more efficient construction than the connections for CLT structures currently used. Test results show the excellent strength and stiffness of the connection, which also allows the replacement of numerous fasteners, including nails and screws, with only a single steel rod. 

There is a deficit of housing in Sweden and it is built too little to compensate for this according to the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, which, among other things, indicate resource shortages as a reason.

The furniture and construction industry have much in common. However, the furniture industry has a larger share of industrial production, which means production at a lower cost. By retrieving production ideas in other industries, there is an opportunity to radically renew and transform the (wood) construction industry and thus streamline the construction process. Historically, cross-sectoral spin-off effects have been shown to generate success factors.

The goal of this project is to develop prototypes for building connections inspired by the furniture and interior industry and explore them together with industry actors. This, in turn, serves as an inspiration for a larger project, together with industry actors aiming at developing systems for assembly of building elements, which provide higher precision and are faster to perform than today's system. The pilot developed in this project shows that the idea is ripe for a more full-scale investigation.

The presented project aims to develop prototypes for building connections inspired by the furniture and interior industry and explore them with representatives from the timber construction industry. The long-term vision is that actors from furniture and building industry together develop a smart system for assembly of building elements, which provide higher precision, faster and more efficient assembly than what is available today. The prototype connectiondeveloped in this project shows that the idea is ripe for full-scale investigation. Laboratory tests showed promising results due to the high failure loads obtained with very high stiffness.

Prefabricated external wall elements for CLT systems

This is a first pre-study to how building with cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a frame system in buildings could be made more efficient using prefabricated exterior wall elements as frame completion for CLT buildings. In carrying out this study, CLT building in Sweden as a rule involves an efficient frame erection of the CLT elements, but with a relatively slow phase to assemble the exterior frame completion. External frame completion of CLT buildings is usually carried out on construction scaffolding, where the layers of insulation and surface layer are built up on site. Prefabrication of the outer layers of the CLT frame that is lifted into place has the potential to save a lot of labor time and thus costs. The report presents requirements and practical aspects that must be taken into account in order for prefabricated exterior wall elements to be feasible in terms of requirements and in practice. The purpose of the report has also been to give tips, inspiration and ideas to consider when producing prefabricated exterior wall elements. In the study, an example solution has been developed with the aim of being wood based to as high degree as possible. The result shows that with relatively simple means it is possible to build a prefabricated wall element that meets established requirements. It is desirable that the outer wall elements are hung in place with the minimum possible finishing work on the facade. When it comes to the division of external wall elements, it is practical to follow a similar division and measurements as for the CLT boards to facilitate handling, assembly and lifting. It should be avoided to have sockets (window panes, door holes and the like) that are broken in its interface between the external wall elements to facilitate uniformity in the dimensioning of the elements. The study shows that it is realistic to create prefabricated exterior wall elements for CLT frames.

The aim

of the project "Biobased building and living for the future" was to create conditions for increased use of bio-based products and services in the construction sector in Sweden and Europe and to increase the competitiveness of the Swedish timber manufacturing industry. The project has shown ways to develop E-commerce, parts of the production where increased digitalization leads to increased capacity and quality, as well as solutions for development of floor systems, external walls and tall timber buildings. The project has shown development opportunities to increase the use of bio-based products that implemented will increase competitiveness.

The project has been divided into eleven sub-projects to study the various aspects of external factors, market conditions and business models, process development and product development. Within each sub-project, several workshops have been carried out to jointly evaluate results and decide the next step in the sub-project. Through joint workshops, the partners have also been able to meet and share results across the sub-projects and spread knowledge and create networks within the industry. The last part is perceived as very valuable by both the companies and the academy / institute.

For the joinery value chain, a current situation analysis has been carried out and shown how the development of E-commerce platforms must be combined with process development in order to have a large effect. The results will be utilized in the companies' strategy work ahead. For the timber building value chain, demonstrators have shown development opportunities for both process and product development. The next step for the companies is to evaluate the various solutions linked to their own production conditions.

The height and the market share of multi-story timber buildings are both rising. During the last two decades, the Architectural and Engineering Construction industry has developed new reliable solutions to provide strength, structural integrity, fire safety and robustness for timber structures used in the mid- and high-rise sectors. According to long-time survey and lab experiments, motion sickness and sopite syndrome are the main adverse effects on the occupants of a wind sensitive building. For tall timber buildings, wind-induced vibrations seem to be a new critical design aspect at much lower heights than for traditional steel-concrete buildings. To guarantee good comfort, the horizontal accelerations at the top of tall timber buildings must be limited. Two methods in the Eurocode for wind actions (EN1991-1-4), procedure 1 in Annex B (EC-B) and procedure 2 in Annex C (EC-C), provide formulas to estimate the along-wind accelerations. The Swedish code advises to follow a method specified in the National Annex to the Eurocode (EKS) and the American ASCE 7-2016 recommend another method. This study gives an overview on the background of the different methods for the evaluation of along-wind accelerations for buildings. Estimated accelerations of several tall timber buildings evaluated according to the different methods are compared and discussed. The scatter of the accelerations estimated with different codes is big and increases the design uncertainty of wind induced response at the top of tall timber buildings

When designing a tall timber building, the accelerations due to wind loads are in many cases decisive. The parameters governing the dynamic behaviour of the building are the structure's stiffness, damping and mass together with the loads. The first two parameters are not well-known during the serviceability limit state of timber structures generally and of timber connections specifically. In this study, dynamical properties of a large glulam truss, a part of the vertical and horizontal structural system in a residential six-storey timber building, are estimated from measurements made in the manufacturing plant. The timber members of the truss are joined with slotted-in steel plates and dowels. Forced vibrational test data are used to extract the dynamical properties. Finite element (FE) models, supported by the experimental results, were developed and simulations, to study the influence of the connection stiffnesses on the total behaviour, were performed. The vibration test results of measurements made on separate structural parts give valuable input to model timber structures and better possibilities to simulate the dynamic behaviour of tall timber buildings as well as the load distribution in wooden structures in the serviceability limit state.

Today there is no standard for strength grading and CE-marking sawn timber of Birch grown in Sweden, which makes it impossible to use this material as structural timber. Internationally, there are standards for visual grading of hardwood in several European countries. However, these standards may not be used to classify Birch timber grown in Sweden without having been tested and verified to meet the standard's requirements. In a project (BizWOOD) run by RISE, 600 pieces of sawn birch wood from Sweden is visually graded and strength tested. The project aims to result in grading rules for birch, either by using international standards or where international standards will be used as references for the identification of defects that will be included in the grading model. This paper summarizes parts of the BizWOOD project and includes 1) description of sampling and timber origin, 2) visual grading according to international standards, 3) strength testing of the material, 4) evaluation of mechanical characteristics, 5) evaluation of grading techniques.

Within the project Dyna-TTB, vibrational tests have been conducted on eight high-rise timber buildings, in Europe. A main objective of the project is to gain knowledge about damping in timber buildings to assist in predicting the accelerations, at the top of a building, due to wind-induced vibrations. One of the buildings is Eken (the oak) in Mariestad in Sweden. That building is seven stories tall, thus questionable as a tall timber building, yet an interesting test object. The building structure is made up of glue laminated timber beams and columns stabilized with glulam trusses. Forced vibration were conducted on Eken with the aim to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. Estimates of the eigenfrequencies, mode shapes, and their scalings are useful both in the calculations of wind-induced vibrations and to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcome is estimates of the modal damping values. The damping impacts the acceleration and thus the serviceability of the building, and at the same time, it is very hard to model damping. So, during the design phase, one must rely on previous test data (of which very few exist for taller timber buildings) and rule of thumbs. It is therefore important to gain knowledge about the damping for timber buildings in order to enable good designs of future and taller timber buildings.

Wind-induced dynamic excitation is a governing design action determining size and shape of modern Tall Timber Buildings (TTBs). The wind actions generate dynamic loading, causing discomfort or annoyance for occupants due to the perceived horizontal sway, i.e. a vibration serviceability problem. The DynaTTB project, funded by the ForestValue research program, mixed on-site measurements on timber buildings, for identification of the structural system, with numerical modelling of timber structures. The goal was to identify and quantify the causes of vibration energy dissipation in modern TTBs and provide key elements to finite element models. This paper presents an overview of the project.    The paper also presents measurements using forced vibration conducted on the seven-storey timber building Eken in Mariestad in Sweden. The main objective is to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. The eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and their scalings are useful to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcomes are the estimates of the modal damping values. The test data shows that the modal damping is roughly equal to 2% of the critical viscous ones for the eigenmodes extracted.

Forced vibration tests have been conducted on the seven-storey timber building Eken in Mariestad in Sweden. The main objective is to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. The eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and their scaling are useful to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcomes are the estimates of the modal damping values. The reason is that the damping impacts the acceleration, and thus the serviceability of the building, and at the same time, it is very hard to model damping. So, during the design phase, one must rely on previous test data (of which very few exist for taller timber buildings) or rule of thumbs. It is therefore important to gain knowledge about the damping for timber buildings in order to enable good designs of future and taller timber buildings. The test data shows that the modal damping is roughly equal to 2% of the critical viscous ones for the eigenmodes extracted. The test campaign on Eken is made as a part of the project Dyna-TTB in which vibrational tests have been performed on eight high-rise timber buildings, in Europe, of which Eken is one.

The potential of building multi-storey timber buildings has changed in recent decades. The building of apartment houses with fully prefabricated volume modules in wood is an industry sector that is rapidly increasing its capacity. A number of house manufacturers that have delivered volume modules, primarily for single family homes, are now expanding their production to multi-storey buildings with up to 6-8 floors. This is a challenging task for producers, since the available design procedures for timber buildings have not yet been fully implemented for these types of buildings. The aim of the work is to develop an efficient and flexible finite element model to analyse the three-dimensional structural behaviour of multi-storey buildings using prefabricated volume modules, made from wooden stud-and-rail structures. The model will be used to study the global structural behaviour of various timber walls, volume modulus and modular-based multi-storey buildings when subjected to different types of loading. The model will also be used for detailed analysis and design (using so-called adaptive modelling) of the most critical parts of the structure.

The building of low and mid-rise modular-based timber buildings is a growing industry sector worldwide. Today, the use of prefabricated light-frame volume modules (sometimes with CLT walls) is a prevalent and innovative construction method. This building method has many advantages, though some of the technical solutions and design methods are quite challenging and should be optimised without risking structural safety. The paper presents results from an ongoing research project that deals with testing and numerical analysis of light-frame timber test modules. It focuses on the testing and simulation of global racking stiffness of different types of test modules and the testing of a friction-based joint between two test modules. The modules showed larger shear load carrying capacity than expected. They also showed a ductile failure behaviour and large variation in racking stiffness between different types of test modules. 

The use of structural timber in residential buildings has increased considerably in Sweden during the last decade. Concomitantly, there has been an emphasis on augmenting the level of prefabrication for such structures. A simultaneous need for education imparted in universities exists, and this paper contributes to this need by outlining a design example of a residential timber building with simple geometry using prefabricated volumetric elements. The serviceability limit state as well as the ultimate limit state have been defined and studied for some critical design situations. The results indicate, for example, that the degree of utilisation in the studied building system for compression perpendicular to the bottom rail in the first storey and buckling of the studs are in the same range - 91 % to 97 % - for the walls separating apartments.