A major problem in light-weight timber floors is their insufficient performance coping with impact noise in low frequencies. There are no prefabricated solutions available in Australia and New Zealand. To rectify this and enable the implementation of lig...
Vibrations induced by people walking is one of the most important issue in timber floor design. Low natural frequency and low mass require a careful analysis in order to prevent significant annoyance and to guarantee an acceptable human comfort. This paper is concerned with the assessment of vibration performance of a timber-concrete composite timber floor and a cross laminated timber floor used in two timber buildings under construction in Trento (Italy). Different approaches suggested by Standards and literature were employed: analytical methods, numerical analyses and laboratory tests. About analytical methods the uniformed distributed load deflection criterion (ULD), the Eurocode 5 criterion and some criterions from literature were compared, whereas the Vibration Dose Value (VDV) method, as suggested by ISO 10137, was used for the numerical models and the laboratory tests. The numerical analyses were carried out by means of a finite element modelling. The load due to footfall was simulated by static and dynamic vertical forces. The laboratory tests were characterized by thirty walking tests for each floor. Impact testing with modal hammer was also undertaken in order to investigate the dynamic properties of the specimens. All results are compared and discussed.
This paper examines a new and very promising concept for prefabricated timber-concrete-composite floors (TCC-floors), were the heavy normal weight concrete is replaced by a lightweight concrete (LC) with a density of about 17 kN/m³. Investigations into the connections between lightweight concrete and timber indicate that the...
A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Approach of Two Innovative Long Span Timber floors with its Reinforced Concrete Equivalent in an Australian Context
Project contact is Christopher Higgins at Oregon State University
Summary
This project will optimize the strength, stiffness, vibration characteristics, acoustic qualities and fire resistance of cross-laminated floor systems utilizing a composite concrete and cross-laminated timber product. This project includes development, testing and optimization of an economical shear connector (to connect the CLT panel to the concrete slab) that will be compared with existing screw and steel plate solutions. The resulting prototype floor system will be tested at full scale.
