Numerical analyses of high- and medium-rise CLT buildings braced with cores and additional shear walls

In last twenty years the CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) panels have become quite widely employed to build multi-storey buildings often characterized by the presence of many internal and perimeter shear walls. Building superstructures in which beam-and-column frameworks resist effects of gravity loads and core substructures and exterior CLT shear walls resist effects of lateral forces have been found structurally effective. Advantages of such structural arrangements can include creation of large open interior spaces, high structural efficiency, and material economies. Here the behaviour of multi-storey buildings braced with CLT cores and additional CLT shear walls is examined based on numerical analyses. Two procedure for calibrating numerical analysis models are proposed and discussed here. The first approach is to use information from Eurocode 5, and the second approach to use specifically applicable experimental data obtained laboratory studies. Technically different ways of connecting CLT panels in order to obtain suitably stiff horizontal diaphragms are also presented.