• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.221-234
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• 2010

In light-frame wood construction, missing roof-sheathing fasteners can be a relatively common occurrence. This type of construction makes up the vast majority of the residential building stock in North America and thus their performance in high winds, including hurricanes, is of concern due to their sheer number. Construction quality issues are common in these types of structures primarily because the majority are conventionally constructed and unlike steel and reinforced concrete structures, inspection is minimal except in certain areas of the country. The concept of performance-based wind engineering (PBWE), a relatively new paradigm, relies on the assumption that building performance under wind loads can be accurately modeled. However, the discrepancy between what is designed (and modeled) and what is built (the as-built) may make application of PBWE to light-frame wood buildings quite difficult. It can be concluded from this study that construction quality must be controlled for realistic application of PBWE to light-frame wood buildings.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.533-542
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• 2019

As energy costs increase, more people has become interested on energy efficiency and savings in residential buildings. The two main subjects related to energy in residential buildings are insulation and condensation. There are two approaches to prevent condensation; increasing air tightness and maintaining the temperature inside of the wall structure over the dew point, which is in turn related to insulation. Even though the Korean government has highlighted the importance of energy efficiency for residential housings, and in spite of the customers' demands, the timber construction industry is still using conventional light-frame construction without even trying to improve energy efficiency. In this study, various types and combinations of wall structures were tested under cold outdoor and warm indoor temperatures to analyse the temperature gradients and to determine the possible sites of condensation in the wall structures. In addition to the experimental tests, three theoretical models were developed and their estimations of temperature change through the wall structure were compared with the actual measurements to evaluate accuracy of the models. The results of the three models agree relatively well with the experimental values, indicating that they can be used to estimate temperature changes in wall structures. The theoretical analysis of different insulation layers' combinations show that condensation may occur within the mid-layer in the conventional light-frame wall structures for any combination of inner-, mid-, and outer-layers of insulation. Therefore, it can be concluded that the addition of an inner and outer insulation layer or increasing the thickness of insulation may not be adequate to prevent condensation in the wall structure without preventing penetration of warm moist air into the wall structure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.163-173
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• 2018

The design wind pressure for low-rise buildings in the ASCE 7-10 is defined by procedures that are categorized into the Main Wind Force-Resisting System (MWFRS) and the Components and Cladding (C&C). Some of these procedures were originally developed based on steel portal frames of industrial buildings, while the residential structures are a completely different structural system, most of which are designed as low-rise light-frame wood constructions. The purpose of this study is to discuss the rationality (or irrationality) of the extension of the wind loads calculated by the ASCE 7-10 to the light-frame wood residential buildings that represent the most vulnerable structures under extreme wind conditions. To serve this purpose, the same approach as used in the development of Chapter 28 of the ASCE 7-10 that envelops peak responses is adopted in the present study. Database-assisted design (DAD) methodology is used by applying the dynamic wind loads from Louisiana State University (LSU) database on a typical residential building model to assess the applicability of the standard by comparing the induced responses. Rather than the postulated critical member demands on the industrial building such as the bending moments at the knee, the maximum values at the critical points for wood frame buildings under wind loads are used as indicators for the comparison. Then, the critical members are identified through these indicators in terms of the displacement or the uplift force at connections and roof envelope. As a result, some situations for each of the ASCE 7 procedures yielding unconservative wind loads on the typical low-rise residential building are identified.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2014

Energy consumption statistics in 2005 from the Korea Energy Management Corporation show that building energy usage was about 24.2% of total domestic energy consumption, and 64% of total building energy usage was consumed by residential buildings. Thus, about 10% of total domestic energy consumption is due to the heating of residential buildings. Building energy can be calculated by the configuration of the building envelope and the rate of infiltration (the volume of the infiltration of outdoor air and the leakage of indoor air), and by doing so, the annual energy usage for heating and cooling. Therefore, air-tightness is an important factor in building energy conservation. This investigate air infiltration and various factors that decrease it in timber frame buildings and suggest ways to improve air-tightness for several structural types. Timber frame buildings can be classified into light frame, post and beam, and log house. Post and beam includes Han-ok (a Korean traditional building). Six light frame buildings, three post and beam buildings, one Korean traditional Han-ok and a log house were selected as specimens. Blower door tests were performed following ASTM E779-03. The light frame buildings showed the highest air-tightness, followed by post and beam structures, and last, log houses.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.65-71
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• 1996

In the design of wood structures, the consideration of the dynamic load effect has been increased. Generally, damping ratio is presented as the method of considering dynamic load effect. So, the relationship between joint type and damping ratio was investigated. It has been known that the joint extremely damp the dynamic load in wood structures. Static test was performed to determine the effects of nail size and friction area on joint strength and stiffness. Joint strength and stiffness were increased with nail size. However, the static properties of joint was not affected by friction area. Cyclic test was performed to determine the effects of nail size, friction area and load magnitude on damping ratio, Damping ratio was affected by all factors. Increasing the width of the bottom plate was suggested as the most adequate method to increase the damping ratio without the reduction of the static properties of the structures.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2018

It is considered that vermiculite as an inorganic material is highly effective when it is used as a building finishing material because it is eco-friendly. Vermiculite has excellent properties such as fire resistance, heat insulation, sound absorption as well as prevention of condensation, deodorization and aesthetics. In this study, we developed a finishing board with vermiculite as its main material and mixed with mineral loose wool (VB-L) or mineral powder (VB-P), and conducted fireproof test and insulation test. In addition, fire resistance tests were carried out by applying the two developed vermiculite boards as finishing materials for the standard wall details of light frame wood structures (KS F 1611-1). As a result of the fire resistance test, the VB-L specimen showed better fire resistance than the VB-P specimen. Both vermiculite boards showed sufficient fire resistance performance of 2 hours for a thickness of 30 mm.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.177-194
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• 2019

While establishing adequate load paths in the light-frame wood structures is critical to maintain the overall structural integrity and avoid significant damage under extreme wind events, the understanding of the load paths is limited by the high redundant nature of this building type. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the system effects and investigate the load paths in the wood structures especially the older buildings for a better performance assessment of the existing building stock under high winds, which will provide guidance for building constructions in the future. This is done by developing building models with configurations that are suspicious to induce failure per post damage reconnaissance. The effect of each configuration to the structural integrity is evaluated by the first failure wind speed, amajor indicator beyond the linear to the nonlinear range. A 3D finite-element (FE) building model is adopted as a control case that is modeled using a validated methodology in a highly-detailed fashion where the nonlinearity of connections is explicitly simulated. This model is then altered systematically to analyze the effects of configuration variations in the model such as the gable end sheathing continuity and the gable end truss stiffness, etc. The resolution of the wind loads from scaled wind tunnel tests is also discussed by comparing the effects to wind loads derived from large-scale wind tests.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.828-835
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• 2017

Airtightness of buildings is one of critical aspects of its energy performance. To build up references of airtightness of wooden houses built in Korea, blower door tests have been carried out in 42 houses since 2006. Causes of air leakage were investigated recently. The average value of air change rate was $3.7h^{-1}$ for light frame house and $5.5h^{-1}$ for post-beam construction at ACH50 (air change per hour at 50 Pa air pressure difference). Foam type insulation was more advantageous in ensuring building airtightness than glass fiber batt. Airtightness of wooden houses which were constructed after 2010 was improved to have less than $1.5h^{-1}$ of ACH50, threshold for application of artificial air change. The average air change rate of CLT (cross laminated timber) houses showed the lowest value, $1.1h^{-1}$, among the tested structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.289-297
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• 2017

This paper presents seismic performance and reliability evaluation on steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems composed of steel moment resisting frames and infill light frame wood shear walls. Based on experimental observations, damage assessment was conducted to determine the appropriate damage-related performance objectives for the hybrid shear wall systems. Incremental time-history dynamic analyses were conducted to establish a database of seismic responses for the hybrid systems with various structural configurations. The associated reliability indices and failure probabilities were calculated by two reliability methods (i.e., fragility analysis and response surface method). Both methods yielded similar estimations of failure probabilities. This study indicated the greatly improved seismic performance of the steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems with stronger infill wood shear walls. From a probabilistic perspective, the presented results give some insights on quantifying the seismic performance of the hybrid system under different seismic hazard levels. The reliability-based approaches also serve as efficient tools to assess the performance-based seismic design methodology and calibration of relative code provisions for the proposed steel-timber hybrid shear wall systems.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.440-456
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• 2009

Because PBD was started as a design tool for steel construction and concrete construction, it was able to applied to the post and beam method of wooden building constructions. But, it may not suitable to light frame wooden construction that is becoming popular in domestic construction market due to the economical efficiency and the constructive simplification. Owing to the share effects between member and sheathing material or among structural members, light frame wooden construction is different from post and beam construction that use a single structural member. Therefore, consideration on the system analysis and system design are urgently needed to use in actual life and inspect the reliability of structures from the system view. With this in mind, code conversion from ASD to PBD that is pressing issue in domestic wooden building construction was studied, also various countries status about PBD were considered and then approaching methods on the system reliability were referred. Finally, several considerations for the development of PBD were explored. PBD should be considered as, not only a new structural design process that select sizes of structural member, but a industrial tool that can lead a development of more reliable wood products. A strongest point of PBD is independent of various construction materials and construction types.