Title: Modern Timber Buildings and Fire resistance and earthquake resistance of post-tensioned multi- storey timber buildings　
Speaker: Prof. ANDY BUCHANAN

From: University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand
Date: June. 9, 2014
CV of the Speaker:

Prof. Andy Buchanan is Professor of　Timber Design at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is a structural engineer with special interests in timber engineering, fire safety and earthquake engineering. His current research includes design and structural performance of large timber structures including innovative post-tensioned timber buildings designed to resist major earthquakes and fires.
Andy has a B.E.(Honours) degree from the University of Canterbury (1970), a Masters degree from the University of California (1972), and a Ph.D from the University of British Columbia, Canada (1984).　
Prior to joining the University of Canterbury in 1987, he was a consulting engineer in private practice, involved in structural design of a wide range of buildings, initially with Holmes Consulting, and later with Buchanan and Fletcher Ltd. He was made a Distinguished Fellow of IPENZ in 2011.
He is the author of Structural Design for Fire Safety (John Wiley & Sons, 2001) and the Timber Design Guide (NZ Timber Industry Federation, 2007). He is past President of the New Zealand Timber Design Society, and currently Research Director of the Structural Timber Innovation Company Ltd.
Abstract:

This seminar describes the huge opportunities for engineered wood to be used for constructing modern timber buildings. This is essential for a greener future on our planet, to reduce world-wide dependence on energy and CO2 intensive materials like concrete and steel, by moving to engineered wood for growing populations.　
To promote the design and construction of engineered timber buildings, it is necessary to develop new wood-based materials, to manage the wood supply chain, and to encourage research and innovation by design professionals. The seminar describes the rebuild of Christchurch New Zealand following the 2011 earthquakes. New Zealand has a mature forest industry, largely based on exotic plantations of radiata pine, and a growing wood processing industry, focussing on laminated veneer lumber (LVL).　Several new post-tensioned timber buildings will be shown.
New Zealand structural engineers are leading the world in innovative low- damage seismic design and performance-based design of multi-storey timber buildings for fire safety, supported by a successful industry-government research partnership. Demonstration buildings are needed to catch the imagination of investors and to increase the confidence of the supply chain. New timber buildings have been proposed for Chicago (42 stories), Vancouver (30 storeys), and a 14 storey building in Ottawa, with the support of the Canadian government, following the New Zealand examples. Post-tensioned timber is a construction technique that has been developed in recent years in New Zealand. When utilised in new buildings, it can lead to significant advantages, including improved lateral load resistance. Post- tensioning uses high-strength steel tendons that are stressed during construction to apply a compressive stress to the members in order to increase the strength, reduce deflections and to tie adjacent members together. Box beams made from LVL allow a very efficient use of engineered timber materials. However the thin webs used in box beams can result in high shear stresses in the webs, which leads to reduced fire resistance. This paper will describe the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and opportunities for re-building the city with multi-storey timber buildings.