1 First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (a joint event of the 13 th ECEE & 30 th General Assembly of the ESC) Geneva, Switzerland, 3-8 September 2006 Paper Number: 983 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON LVL SEISMIC RESISTANT WALL AND FRAME SUBASSEMBLIES Alessandro PALERMO 1 , Stefano PAMPANIN 2 , Andy BUCHANAN 3 SUMMARY Based on the recent developments on alternative jointed ductile dry connections for concrete multi- storey buildings, the paper aims to extend and propose similar innovative seismic connections for laminated veneer lumber (LVL) timber buildings. The dry connections herein proposed are characterised by a sort of rocking occurring at the section interface of the structural elements when an earthquake occurs; unbonded post-tensioned techniques and dissipative devices respectively provide self-centring and dissipation capacities. The paper illustrates some experimental investigations of an extensive campaign, still undergoing at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, NZ) are herein presented and critically discussed. In particular, results of cyclic quasi-static testing on exterior beam-column subassemblies and wall-to-foundation systems are herein presented; preliminary results of pseudo-dynamic testing on wall-to-foundation specimens are also illustrated. The research investigations confirmed the enhanced seismic performance of these systems/connections; three key aspects , as the no-damageability in the structural elements, typical “flag-shape” cyclic behaviour (with self-centring and dissipation capacity), negligible residual deformations, i.e. limited costs of repair, joined with low mass, flexibility of design and rapidity of construction LVL timber, all create the potential for an increased use in low-rise multi- storey buildings. 1. INTRODUCTION In the last decade, construction developments in the seismic protection and refinements of performance-based seismic design/engineering (PBSE) philosophies highlight the importance of designing ductile structural systems to undergo inelastic cycles during earthquake events while sustaining their integrity, recognizing the economic disadvantages of elastic design of buildings to withstand earthquakes with no structural damage. This particularly applies to multi-storey buildings in moderate or high seismic regions. The improvements of seismic design philosophies and innovative structural systems come out in parallel and are strictly related with an increased focus on limited damage objective, as observed in recent years. As a consequence, the critical role of residual deformations, i.e. costs of repair after an earthquake event, currently defining the seismic performance of structures as an additional and complementary indicator of damage, has been recently emphasized in literature (MacRae and Kawashima, 1997), (Pampanin et al., 2002), (Christopoulos and Pampanin , 2004), (Mackie and Stojadinovic, 2004), while innovative jointed ductile dry connections for precast concrete have been developed by (Priestley 1991, 1996, Priestley et al., 1999). The development of these alternative solutions for precast concrete buildings introduced innovative concepts in the seismic design of frame and shear wall systems: alternatively to the emulation of cast-in-place approach, pure precast elements are assembled through post-tensioning techniques, with the inelastic demand being 1 Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Structural Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133, Milan, Italy Email : alessandro.palermo@polimi.it ; 2 Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury, Department of Civil Engineering, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zeala nd Email : stefano.pampanin@canterbury.ac.nz ; 3 Full Professor, University of Canterbury, Department of Civil Engineering, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand Email : andy.buchanan@canterbury.ac.nz ;