Wind-induced vibration is an important design consideration in tall buildings in any structural material. The two main forms of wind-induced vibration – across-wind vibration due to vortex shedding and along-wind vibration due to turbulence – were taken into consideration when undertaking this study. Both types are addressed in Eurocode 1. This research summary discusses a study which, following a sensitivity study into the effect of stiffness and damping on wind induced vibration, addresses a shortfall in current knowledge of stiffness in dowel-type connections. This type of connection is found in the glulam frame and CLT structures currently at the forefront of tall timber construction, and its behaviour was investigated by measuring and analysing stiffness and damping under oscillating loads representative of wind-induced vibration.

Wind-induced vibration is an important design consideration in tall buildings in any structural material. This study has shown that tall timber buildings can be expected to be lightweight, due to the high strength-to-weight ratio of timber, and flexible, with design governed by deflections. The results of this study suggest that the connection stiffness tends towards the elastic stiffness for small-amplitude onesided vibration, but reduces as the amplitude increases, and reduces dramatically if the vibration reverses the load on the connections.