Vertical Vibration of Mass Timber Floors Subjected to Seismic and Footfall Loading

Abstract

With the continued development of mass timber products, use of the these products in tall buildings has become more feasible. Previous research has shown that mass timber floors perform well under footfall loading, but no research has been conducted on the response of mass timber floors when subjected to vertical seismic ground motions. This study aimed to compare the results of numerical models of mass timber floors with the results of the NHERI Tallwood Project's 10-story test, as well as analyze the performance of the mass timber floors when subjected to vertical ground motions during the NHERI Tallwood Project's 10-story test. The numerical models were developed using methods for modeling the vibration in floors due to human-induced footfall loading. The developed numerical models did not prove to produce accurate results due to various factors including, but not limited to, influence from horizontal seismic motions, unknown damping coefficients of the mass timber floors, and high-frequency noise within the data collection.