Jeffrey Berman joined the CEE department at the University of Washington in 2006 after completing his Ph.D. and a short Post-Doctoral period at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has worked on numerous large-scale destructive experimental investigations involving steel and heavy timber structures and sub assemblages. His research strives to blend experimental and analytical investigations to help develop the tools and understanding necessary for practicing engineers to design structures to resist the forces of earthquakes, blasts, and other hazards. He was the structural engineering lead on the M9 Project, a large NSF supported interdisciplinary research project investigating the impacts of magnitude 9 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes on the Pacific Northwest. He is also the Site Operations Director of the NSF supported NHERI Rapid Facility, a shared use equipment site supporting natural hazards reconnaissance headquartered at the UW. He has been collaborating with the NHERI TallWood team on rocking mass timber walls since 2014.
To advance the wood products market, new design solutions for tall wood buildings using mass timber products are being developed. In particular, post-tensioned rocking walls built with cross-laminated timber (CLT) or other mass timber products have been proposed as a seismic resilient lateral system. To advance the seismically resilient mass timber solutions for tall buildings, a comprehensive shake table test program of a 10-story building with mass timber rocking walls is underway. Construction and testing is taking place on the NHERI@UC San Diego outdoor shaking table. Professor Berman’s presentation will focus on the design, model development and analysis of the mass timber rocking walls that serve as the lateral force resisting system in the 10-story test building.