The current research investigated the delamination process of adhesively bonded hardwood (European beech) elements subject to changing climatic conditions. For the study of the long-term fracture mechanical behavior of gluedlaminated components under varying moisture content, the role of moisture development, time- and moisture-dependent responses are absolutely crucial. For this purpose, a 3D orthotropic hygro-elastic, plastic, visco-elastic, mechano-sorptive wood constitutive model with moisture-dependent material constants was presented in this work. Such a comprehensive material model is capable to capture the true historydependent stress states and deformations which are essential to achieve reliable design of timber structures. Besides the solid wood substrates, the adhesive material also influences the interface performance considerably. Hence, to gain further insight into the stresses and deformations generated in the bond-line, a general hygro-elastic, plastic, visco-elastic creep material model for adhesive was introduced as well. The associated numerical algorithms developed on the basis of additive decomposition of the total strain were formulated and implemented within the Abaqus Finite Element (FE) package. Functionality and performance of the proposed approach were evaluated by performing multiple verification simulations of wood components, under different combinations of mechanical loading and moisture variation. Moreover, the generality and efficiency of the presented approach was further demonstrated by conducting an application example of a hybrid wood element.
Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) structures exhibit satisfactory performance under seismic conditions. This ispossible because of the high strength-to-weight ratio and in-plane stiffness of the CLT panels, and the capacity ofconnections to resist the loads with ductile deformations and limited impairment of strength. This study sum-marises a part of the activities conducted by the Working Group 2 of COST Action FP1402, by presenting an in-depth review of the research works that have analysed the seismic behaviour of CLT structural systems. Thefirstpart of the paper discusses the outcomes of the testing programmes carried out in the lastfifteen years anddescribes the modelling strategies recommended in the literature. The second part of the paper introduces theq-behaviour factor of CLT structures and provides capacity-based principles for their seismic design.
The study reports on block shear investigations with bondlines of face-glued laminations and matched solid wood specimens from hardwood glulam (GLT) beams produced industrially from eight technically and stand volume-wise important species. The European hardwoods comprised oak, beech, sweet chestnut and ash and the tropical species were teak, keruing, melangangai and light red meranti. The adhesives were phenol-resorcinol and melamine-urea. When combining all species in one sample, a rather strong linear relationship of bond and wood shear strength was observed. The ratio of bond vs. wood shear strength was for all species on the mean value level = 0.9, and likewise (with one exception) for the respective strengths’ 5%-quantiles. Consistent with literature, the test results showed no significant correlations between bond shear strength and density, wood shear strength and wood failure percentage of individual species, respectively. The investigations render the methodological basics of some international standards on bond quality verification as being inappropriate. New, empirically validated hardwood GLT bond requirements are proposed for discussion and implementation at the CEN and ISO levels. The strength ratio specifications reflect respective ANSI provisions, yet the reference quantity wood shear strength is now determined in an unbiased manner from matched GLT specimens. The wood failure verification proposal is based on the 10%-quantile and mean level for initial type testing and factory production control. The requirements further account for the pronounced difference observed in scatter of wood failure between European and tropical species.
Timber plate structures with integral mechanical attachments have been successfully built in the last decades. Previous research has highlighted the influence of these connections in the global behavior of the structures. Double-layered plate shells are one of the latest applications of integral joints. Their fabrication and assembly has been proven efficient. However, their structural behavior remains unknown. Simplified models are required to predict their behavior since an individual detailed modelling of the large amount of joints would be time-consuming and computationally expensive. Current simplifications involve either considering the connections as rigid or hinged and do not allow accurate prediction of their behavior. In this paper, a numerical finite element model in which the semi-rigid behavior of the joints is modeled by means of springs is presented for a double-layered timber plate structure made of 5 by 3 segments. The numerical model is automatically generated in the finite element software AbaqusTM from a simplified geometry. Numerical results are compared to a three-point bending test performed on two specimens. The developed spring model shows promising results for its application to a full double-layered timber plate shell. Only axial and shear stiffnesses were implemented in this model while the other degrees of freedom were considered rigid. This consideration might lead to an overly stiff model.
The purpose of this study is to examine the mechanical properties of ACQ-treated glulam made from three hardwood lumbers. Two nondestructive methods, ultrasonic wave and tap tone method, were also used in this study. The results showed that the dynamic MOE and static MOE of lumbers decreased with increased ACQ preservative retention. ANOVA showed no significant difference in the MOE values of glulam between untreated and ACQ-treated group. However, it was also found that glulam made from red oak lumbers had the highest bending strength retention ratio. The shear strength of the glulam also showed similar results. Finally, no delaminating was found in all glulams after the specimens under soaked and boiled delamination tests.
The wood engineering community has dedicated a significant amount of effort over the last decades to establish a reliable predictive model for the load-carrying capacity of timber connections under wood failure mechanisms. Test results from various sources (Foschi and Longworth 1975; Johnsson 2003; Quenneville and Mohammad 2000; Stahl et al. 2004; Zarnani and Quenneville 2012a) demonstrate that for multi-fastener connections, failure of wood can be the dominant mode.
In existing wood strength prediction models for parallel to grain failure in timber connections using dowel-type fasteners, different methods consider the minimum, maximum or the summation of the tensile and shear capacities of the failed wood block planes. This results in disagreements between the experimental values and the predictions. It is postulated that these methods are not appropriate since the stiffness in the wood blocks adjacent to the tensile and shear planes differs and this leads to uneven load distribution amongst the resisting planes (Johnsson 2004; Zarnani and Quenneville 2012a).
The present study focuses on the nailed connections. A closed-form analytical method to determine the load-carrying capacity of wood under parallel-to-grain loading in small dowel-type connections in timber products is thus proposed. The proposed stiffness-based model has already been verified in brittle and mixed failure modes of timber rivet connections (Zarnani and Quenneville 2013b).
In timber research, a main objective is the development and promotion of innovative and efficient timber structures. Therefore a pilot building, named ETH House of Natural Resources, has been designed, which uses two innovative structural systems, a post-tensioned timber frame and a composite beech LVL concrete floor. The building will be used as an office building for the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology from ETH Zürich and will serve as a showcase building of a sustainable and reliable timber construction for students and researchers, among others.
At the Institute of Structural Engineering (IBK) of ETH Zurich, the fire behaviour of timber-concrete composite slabs made with beech laminated veneer lumber (LVL) (BauBuche) was investigated. This composite slab is made of a thin plate (depth: 40 mm or 80 mm) using beech LVL and a concrete layer on top (depth: 160 mm or 120 mm). The beech plate acts both as formwork and as tensile reinforcement. This innovative slab system was implemented for the first time in the ETH House of Natural Resources at ETH Zurich. This paper summarizes the results of two largescale fire tests on loaded timber-concrete composite slabs exposed to standard ISO fire. Both fire tests show that the timber-concrete composite slab using beech LVL reaches sufficient fire resistance and integrity for 90 min and 60 min, respectively.
The presented work examines the rolling shear properties of beech wood for the novel application as cross-layers in hybrid cross-laminated timber. Rolling shear modulus and strength of beech were determined by three different approaches: i) two-plate shear tests on single beech board slabs, and ii) compression shear and iii) bending tests on hybrid CLT specimens based on the test methods defined in EN 16351. The CLT specimens were cut from two industrially manufactured hybrid three-layered CLT-plates with a beech cross-layer and spruce outer layers. The rolling shear modulus results obtained from the single board tests and the bending tests agreed well and were within the range of 350 - 370 N/mm². The characteristic rolling shear strength obtained from the bending tests was determined as 2.6 N/mm², where the failure was often governed by longitudinal shearing of the spruce laminations. Hybrid CLT-plates demonstrate a highly improved strength and deflection behaviour versus homogenous spruce CLT-plates and result in not only a mechanically superior product but also allow for a greatly simplified design approach.
The state of the art requires a closed waiting time of about one hour for the beech glulam production. This has a negative influence on the production costs. Micro structured surfaces showed good performance in combination with coatings. The authors have performed tension-shear and delaminating test in order to investigate the influence of micro structured surfaces on the bond quality of hardwoods. The results are very promising and show clearly improved delaminating resistance for all tested adhesive. No closed waiting time was needed to achieve satisfying results using MUF in combination with beech.
