The Revision of the Timber Chapter of the EUROCODE 8

The provisions for the design of structures for earthquake resistance included within Eurocode 8 are undergoing a substantial modification with respect to the current ones, which were released in 2004. In this revision, the chapter on timber structures is probably the one subjected to the major modifications. The current version consists of no more than five pages in total, and is not updated to the current state of the art. This paper presents these new provisions for the seismic design of timber structures, which are significantly more detailed with respect to the current ones. The new rules will include (i) modifications to the specifications related to the materials to be used in the seismic design of timber buildings, (ii) new definitions of the structural types together with schematic drawings to ease the understanding of the designer, (iii) modification of the values of the behaviour factor to be used in the seismic design of dissipative structural types, (iv) modification of the ductility rules for dissipative zones, (v) capacity design rules for each structural type including the corresponding values of the overstrength factors, and (vi) new provisions for non-linear static analysis of timber structures. A clear guidance will be provided, in particular, to apply the force-based design method of Eurocode 8 for multi-storey buildings, which are recently spreading in different European Countries characterized by different seismicity levels. Special emphasis will be given to the two main structural systems used for the construction of residential building, the Light-Frame system and the Cross Laminated Timber system. The revision work, which is still ongoing, is being conducted within Project Team PT8.2 with the supervision of the CEN/TC250/SC8 committee 'Design for Earthquake Actions', sub-group WG3 ‘Timber’. The new Eurocode 8 is expected to replace the current one in 2022.