Kor Structural receives BC Housing Grant to Research Steel Coupling Beams

April 13th, 2022

Kor Structural is proud to share we are the recipient of a Building Excellence Research & Education Grant from BC Housing. Between this grant, in-kind contributions from Kor Structural, and a MITACS partnership with the University of British Columbia – Okanagan, we are able to fund a comprehensive research program at UBCO that will investigate the use of Steel Coupling Beams in Canadian high-rises.

Steel Coupling Beams

Typical Canadian tall buildings use concrete shear walls arranged into a centralized core to resist wind and earthquake demands. Coupling beams or headers are used over openings to link the walls together and provide significant energy dissipation and stiffness to core walls. Typical practice is to use regular reinforcing steel bars arranged diagonally into a ‘X’ shape to reinforce the beams, which is proven to provide dependable strength and ductility.

An alternative is Steel Coupling Beams (SCB) which utilize a compact structural steel section (like an I-beam). The advantage of SCB over conventional beams include higher energy dissipation, strength, ductility, and reparability. Despite these advantages, SCB are rarely used in Canadian construction due to a lack of practical design guidelines and unfamiliarity by industry. In this research project, Kor and our UBCO Research Partners will develop practical Canadian design guidelines for SCB and investigate novel solutions which can increase the effectiveness of SCB in concrete core walls.

Building Excellence Research & Education Grants

BC Housing created the grant program to encourage research and development of improved building techniques and knowledge sharing. Grants are awarded to organizations to further these goals in construction, energy efficiency, sustainability, and economics. More information about the grant program can be found on the BC Housing website here.

Research