Claude Leyder
Claude Leyder is currently a Timber Engineer @Holzbaubüro Reusser – Ein Unternehmen von Synaxis.
During her doctoral thesis with the SMM Chair, Claude worked on Monitoring-based performance assessment of an innovative timber-hybrid building. This project focused on the monitoring and structural assessment of the “ETH House of Natural Resources”, a pilot building for the implementation of hardwood in timber engineering. The building features several innovative structural systems, namely, a post-tensioned timber frame, a composite beech LVL concrete floor, a hollow composite concrete-timber floor and a biaxial timber slab. The Figure displays a picture of the completed building. The building functions as an office building for the laboratory of hydraulics, hydrology and glaciology of ETH Zürich and thereby serves as a “living lab”.
The building incorporates a high-end monitoring concept to study the long-term behavior of its structural members. Several full-scale dynamic testing series, conducted in the laboratory and on the construction site, as well as ambient vibration monitoring during the operation phase, complement the static long-term monitoring campaign.
The coupling of experimentally obtained information and numerical models of the structure allows the extraction of further knowledge about the long-term behavior of the innovative structural systems. Thereby, the efficiency of these innovative structural systems can be further improved, with the purpose of further unlocking the full potential of timber structures.
