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Abstract: Design of structural systems for commercial and multi-residential buildings throughout most parts of the world, is currently dominated by the use of reinforced and / or prestressed concrete construction, usually supported by steel or concrete beams and frames. However, recent developments throughout the world have demonstrated the potential for timber based structural systems to be used in these types of buildings for beams and columns, roof structures and floors. The advent of engineered wood products (EWP''s) such as LVL and glulam has made it possible to fabricate large section, long spanning structural members that have excellent structural properties and reliability equivalent to that of steel or concrete used in the same applications. Since 2007, significant (and related) research initiatives have been undertaken in Australia and New Zealand, investigating the performance of timber and timber hybrid systems for use in large span / medium rise commercial and industrial buildings. In 2009 a research consortium of government, industry and three Universities known as the Structural Timber Innovation Company (STIC) commenced an extensive R&D 5 year program with a total budget of $10m NZD. This paper presents an overview of each area of research, describing the focus of work to date, discussion of issues that have been identified and addressed, as well as details of expected outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a new soil-foundation macro-element model to allow efficient and sufficiently accurate consideration of soil-foundation-structure interaction in structural analysis. The model makes use of two constitutive models, a plasticity model which models the soil inelastic deformation, and an elastic uplift model, which captures the geometric non-linearity during uplift of the foundation. Further considerations are made to allow the macro-element to be efficiently implemented in a particular non-linear finite element software (Ruaumoko3D). Two experimental centrifuge tests are simulated using the proposed macro-element: one of a bridge pier and one of a one-bay, one-storey frame structure. The simulated results are compared to the experimental behaviour to demonstrate the accuracy of the numerical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Uncertainties involved in the characterization and seismic response of soil–foundation–structure systems along with the inherent randomness of the earthquake ground motion result in very complex (and often controversial) effects of soil–foundation–structure interaction (SFSI) on the seismic response of structures. Conventionally, SFSI effects have been considered beneficial (reducing the structural response), however, recent evidence from strong earthquakes has highlighted the possibility of detrimental effects or increase in the structural response due to SFSI. This paper investigates the effects of SFSI on seismic response of structures through a robust Monte Carlo simulation using a wide range of realistic SFS systems and earthquake input motions in time-history analyses. The results from a total of 1.36 million analyses are used to rigorously quantify the SFSI effects on structural distortion and total horizontal displacement of the structure, and to identify conditions (system properties and earthquake motion characteristics) under which SFSI increases the structural response. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]