Element 5 - Education & Outreach

Tasks 5.3 and 5.4 -
Courses for Design Professionals, Students, and Construction Industry

CUREE awarded Washington State University Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering professors David Pollock, Ken Fridley, and Michael Symans $20,000 to develop Educational Modules on the Seismic Design of Woodframe Buildings for Practicing Architects and Engineers. The project will be closely coordinated with an award from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. The interactive web-based or CD-based educational modules will be focused toward both university and practicing professional audiences. They will address Seismic Loading for Low-Rise Wood Buildings, Flexible Horizontal Diaphragm Behavior in Wood Structures, and the Perforated Shearwall Design Methodology. For the CUREE project, the modules will be enhanced and modified for architects, engineers and building officials. They will focus extensively on design and construction details for wood structures in seismic regions. The project time period begins December 8, 2000 and is described in Appendix 5.3.1, Educational Modules).

The Woodframe Advisory Committee will be invited to review the modules. Possible reviewers who would look at their material, including a draft outline might be:

• Gregg Brandow


• Kelly Cobeen


• John Coil


• Dan Dolan


• Seb Ficcadenti


• André Filiatrault


• Gary Mochizuki (SEAOC rep on Advisory Committee)


• Jim Russell


• Ed Takahashi

Education Modules: Timber Web Modules

Seismic Loads
The objective of this module is to provide an introductory exposure to the estimation of lateral seismic loads and the associated structural behavior of low-rise wood buildings. Load development is based on provisions of the 2000 International Building Code (IBC) and the 1997 Uniform Building Code (UBC).

Diaphragms
This module illustrates the design methodology for wood-frame diaphragms that resist lateral loads in structures.

Shear Walls
This module illustrates the lateral load path through a typical wood structure and describes two design methodologies for wood-frame shear walls. The use of code-specified Allowable Shear Design Tables for wood-frame shear walls is also illustrated.