Perforated Plate Testing

As part of Fast + Epp’s ongoing work to push the boundaries of Tall Wood construction in seismic zones, this testing program aims to develop a new dissipative system for use in timber braced frames or other timber lateral systems where the connections provide energy dissipation. The connections are designed to dissipate energy through ductile steel plates to provide robust and well understood dissipative systems.

In collaboration with the Advanced Research in Timber Systems’ team at the University of Alberta, Fast + Epp is working on a four-phase testing program for cyclic and monotonic testing of various configurations of perforated plate connections. Small scale tests have been completed on perforated plates, and entire connections will be examined in advance of a full-scale timber brace frame test to evaluate the overall behaviour.