Dynamic Characterization and Vibration Serviceability Assessment of Two Bare High-Frequency CLT Floors

The building construction industry currently represents around 11% of the global carbon emissions. Thus, nowadays the widespread use of low-carbon footprint materials such as timber is considered a priority within the sector. Timber buildings have shown adequate structural performance in terms of capacity and stiffness; however, their extremely lightweight nature makes them more prone to develop excessive vibration responses. This fact is especially remarkable in modern buildings mainly built with engineering wooden products (EWPs) such as Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). Focusing on timber floors, their vibration serviceability limit state (VSLS) usually consists of limiting their dynamic response to human-induced loads as those produced when walking or performing aerobic activities. During the last three decades, the study of floors’ VSLS has been developed in parallel by two methodological schools, that of concrete/composite floors and that of timber ones. New Eurocode 5 has faced this inconsistency by updating its vibration-checking method, moving closer to the approaches used for concrete ones. However, there is still some controversy regarding these new vibration limits and the way of analyzing the response of lightweight floors with natural frequencies over 15 Hz. This paper provides an additional case study on the literature, in which two high-frequency CLT floors have been dynamically characterized using operational modal analysis. Additionally, a subsequent experimental assessment of their VSLS has been performed. The results shed light on the dynamic behavior of these types of floors increasingly used in the building construction sector.