Minsheng Industrial Group
425 Hong Feng Road
Pudong New Area
Shanghai 201206
Tel: 86-21-5030-1126
Fax: 86-21-5030-2916
Beijing
Room 1507, Kuntai
International Mansion,
No.12 B Chaowai Street,
Beijing 100020
Tel: 86-10-59251256
Fax: 86-10-59251259
FII China Email: info@bcfii.cn
The lightweight and high energy absorbing capabilities of wood-framing are inherent characteristics that make it a preferred building system in earthquake regions. Surveys have shown that wood-frame buildings meeting the basic requirements for wall bracing, connectivity and anchorage, provide safety to their occupants during earthquakes. The prescriptive requirements of building codes for smaller wood-frame buildings provide a basic resistance to lateral earthquake loads. Larger wood-frame buildings are effectively engineered to resist earthquake forces.
Research has been done on North American wood-frame construction over the past twenty years to better understand and enhance its performance in earthquakes. Test results from research projects are in substantial agreement with the findings of the previous surveys of the performance of wood-frame construction. Building codes and design standards for wood-frame construction are continuously evolving to incorporate earthquake field observations and research.
Wood-frame construction is a proven building method that has provided safety to people in devastating earthquakes. In the Alaska earthquake of 1964, the low death toll is attributed to the fact that most people were home – in wood-frame buildings – when the earthquake struck. The same observation was made following the Northridge Earthquake thirty years later. Wood framing also offers the prospect of safety for those people living in areas of the world that are at high risk to the devastating effects of earthquakes.