Evaluation of north American vibration standards for mass-timber floors

Mass-timber is an emerging building technology created by using structural adhesives to laminate layers of dimensional lumber together to create large ‘timber’ panels. These panels can be used as structural building elements in floors and walls. However, due to relatively large stiffness-to-mass ratios and low inherent damping, optimized timber floors can be vibration controlled even at spans of 3 m. There are several current North American vibration standards that can be applied to timber floors. The goal of this research is twofold: (1) investigate floor performance under various North American vibration criteria for various boundary conditions and (2) address general methods of optimizing floor performance. The impact of support compliance for CLT floors is presented in span-to-depth and span-to-frequency charts intended to assist practitioners with preliminary floor design. The results indicate that existing evaluation methods provide wide-ranging and sometimes conflicting results. However, for all criteria surveyed, it is shown that increasing rotational restraint results in up to 35% thinner floor panels.