Ryan Gohlich, a 3rd year Masters of Applied Science student in Civil Engineering was one of two recipients of the 2015 Catherine Lalonde Memorial Scholarship awarded by the Canadian Wood Council (CWC) in November 2015.
Gohlich has been conducting research to develop a hybrid timber-steel moment-resisting frame for use in seismic resistant heavy timber structures. This work seeks to develop a high capacity moment connection that will promote a ductile failure mode during a design level seismic event, which means the connection will not fail suddenly during a severe earthquake, giving time for occupants to leave the building if needed. The connection, according to the presentation, will be designed to localize seismic damage to a single element that can be accessed and repaired post-earthquake, theoretically lowering the cost of repair after a major event. This work is important because it could make heavy timber structures higher performing, more efficient and more affordable in high seismic locations compared to a similar system with non-ductile connections or lower capacity connections. Ryan Gohlich achieved an outstanding perfect Grade Point Average of 12.0 after 6 challenging graduate courses, and is supervised by Dr Jeffrey Erockho.
The Catherine Lalonde Memorial Scholarship Fund was established twelve years ago to encourage the search for innovative solutions for the use of wood in construction and is awarded yearly to graduate students who demonstrate excellence in their studies of structural wood or architectural wood design.
Left to right: Michel Giroux (CWC), Philipe Charest (Laval University), Ryan Gohlich (Carleton University), Steven Street (Ontario Wood WORKS!).