Design of CLT buildings under seismic actions

Cross-Laminated-Timber (CLT) is an engineered wood product that have been manufactured in Europe for more than ten years, and widely used throughout the continent, with good results in terms of structural behavior, building speed and quality housing. In CLT buildings, resistance to horizontal actions wind and earthquakes - is entrusted to the wall panel and to metal connection systems to ensure the transfer of shear actions at the base of the wall and the tension actions causing the wall's rocking behavior. Moreover, metal connection systems are systematically adopted for joining the vertical and horizontal diaphragms to ensure a box like behavior. This paper illustrates the basic concept of the design under lateral load actions of CLT buildings, with special emphasis to the role of the connections systems, and reports some results of recent research projects, carried out at the University of Trento, by mean both theoretical and experimental investigations. On the basis of this research work accomplished in recent years, a process of technology transfer between research and practice resulted in the development of a software for the design of CLT multi-storey buildings.