Having recently validated assumptions about floor-system capacities in its timber-and-concrete structural model for a 42-story residential building, architect-engineer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is planning additional load tests, followed by fire tests, to nail down the viability of mass-timber-and-concrete high-rises. The tests are part of SOM’s Timber Tower Research Project, begun in late 2012, to develop a composite structure, through performance-based design, that is marketable, serviceable, economical and sustainable.
Results of load tests performed this summer at Oregon State University’s O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory “slightly exceeded our expectations,” says Benton Johnson, SOM’s structural associate for the research, sponsored by the Softwood Lumber Board.