Presenter:

Shiling Pei, Ph.D., PE

Associate Professor

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Colorado School of Mines

Bio-Sketch. Dr. Shiling Pei received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University in December 2007 and is currently an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in. His research focused on multi-hazard mitigation through performance based engineering, numerical modeling of structural dynamic behavior, traditional and innovative timber systems, and large-scale dynamic testing. Dr. Pei received the 2012 ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize for his work on seismic performance of mid-rise wood frame building (NEESWood). He is the author of the Seismic Analysis Package for Woodframe Structures (SAPWood). Dr. Pei is currently leading an NSF funded six-university collaboration effort to develop seismic design methodology for resilient tall cross laminated timber (CLT) buildings. This project involves shake table testing of a 10-story full-scale tall wood building at NHERI@UCSD outdoor shake table planned in 2021. Dr. Pei served as the Chair of the ASCE Wood Technical Administrative Committee and is a registered Professional Engineer in State of California.

Abstract.  In the U.S., with the newly passed International Building Code (IBC) provisions to enable mass timber building up to 18 stories, there is an opportunity to use this sustainable and light-weight material to develop tall wood buildings that are resilient against earthquake hazards. Specifically, the opportunity to build tall mass timber buildings with adaptive open floor plans that can survive large earthquakes without major damage, thus minimize down-time for building owners and occupants. Imagine a wood building that can survive historical Northridge Earthquake (M6.7) without any structural damage. The tenants can move right back in after a major earthquake because there will only be a few drywall patches to repair. Seismically resilient tall wood building is the focus of the NHERI TallWood Project, which is a National Science Foundation and industry funded collaborative research effort involving researchers and engineers from U.S., Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. The concept of low-damage wood construction is built upon two decades of research work on post-tensioned wood systems. In this presentation, background on mass timber seismic research and design will be discussed, intermediate findings from the TallWood Project will be presented; and the project’s validation test plan to build and test a 10-story wood building at the world’s largest outdoor shake table at San Diego in 2021 will be revealed.