Reliability Studies

The type of construction that is the subject of the investigation reported in this document is typical “two-by-four” frame construction as developed and commonly built in the United States. (Outside the scope of this Project are the many kinds of construction in which there are one or more timber components, but which cannot be described as having a timber structural system, e.g., the roof of a typical concrete tilt-up building). In contrast to steel, masonry, and concrete construction, woodframe construction is much more commonly built under conventional (i.e., non-engineered) building code provisions. Also notable is the fact that even in the case of engineered wood buildings, structural engineering analysis and design procedures, as well as building code requirements, are more based on traditional practice and experience than on precise methods founded on a well-established engineering rationale. Dangerous damage to US woodframe construction has been rare, but there is still considerable room for improvement. To increase the effectiveness of earthquake-resistant design and construction with regard to woodframe construction, two primary aims of the Project are:

1. Make the design and analysis more scientific, i.e., more directly founded on experimentally and theoretically validated engineering methods and more precise in the resulting quantitative results.

2. Make the construction more efficient, i.e., reduce construction or other costs where possible, increasing seismic performance while respecting the practical aspects associated with this type of construction and its associated decentralized building construction industry.