Review Category : Code Updates

A Variety of Approaches

States and municipalities eager to allow taller mass timber buildings are considering adopting the mass timber provisions in the 2021 International Building Code (IBC). Many have recently finished the adoption of the 2018 I-codes and would otherwise wait several more years to incorporate construction types IV-A, IV-B, and IV-C into their building codes to allow mass timber buildings up to 18 stories tall.

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How Tall Mass Timber Touches the Sky and Matches the Fire Performance of Traditional Non-Combustible Construction Types

With the adoption of the 2021 International Building Code (IBC), municipalities across the United States will have the ability to build wood buildings taller than ever before. With three new types of construction, Type IV-A, IV-B, and IV-C, mass timber buildings will allow design professionals to erect wood buildings up to 18 stories in height. Figure 1 represents the maximum permitted number of stories under the Type IV-A code change. While these structures are constructed from wood, they are not conventional light-frame construction, and the structural behavior and fire resistance of mass timber structures are not comparable to light-frame construction.

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As buildings get taller, bigger, and are required to resist higher seismic forces, the amount of reinforcement needed becomes impractical. Even if theoretical sizes can be calculated, it may be impossible to construct tightly spaced rebar cages or congested joint connections. Using higher strength reinforcement is a natural solution to this problem. Research on the use of high-strength reinforcement (HSR) began in the late 1950s. The outcome of this research first appeared in ACI 318-71, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, which allowed limited use of reinforcement with a higher grade than 60 ksi.
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Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) published ACI 318-19, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, in June 2019. This edition of ACI 318 is the first to be published since the format of ACI 318 was reorganized in 2014. It includes new and updated code provisions as well as color illustrations and interactive links in its online version.

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Historic Action by ICC Follows Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations

The 2021 International Building Code (IBC) will introduce three new types of construction for fire-resistance-rated mass timber structures, the first significant addition to the types of construction in many years. Although still considered combustible construction, the structural frames of these buildings are designed for integrity in the unlikely event of fire exposure.

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In 2016, AISI S100, North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members (or Specification), was updated with an entirely new layout which is parallel in format with ANSI/AISC 360, Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. Also, the Direct Strength Method has been integrated into the body of AISI S100, which enables engineers to design cold-formed steel members with unconventional cross-sections.
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Determining Components and Cladding Roof Design Pressures

Component and cladding (C&C) roof pressures changed significantly in ASCE 7-16, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures. For flat roofs, the corner zones changed to an ‘L’ shape with zone widths based on the mean roof height and an additional edge zone was added.

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Changes to the Masonry Code

A new edition of Building Code Requirements for Masonry Structures and Specification for Masonry Structures was published in 2016 (Figure 1). In addition to technical updates, there were four non-technical changes. The first is that the code and specification are now solely sponsored by The Masonry Society (TMS) and are known as TMS 402 (formerly also designated as ACI 530 and ASCE 5) and TMS 602 (formerly also designated as ACI 530.1 and ASCE 6), respectively.

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