In a former paper by the authors [1], the elastic behavior of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and timber panels having periodic gaps between lateral lamellae has been analyzed. A thick plate homogenization scheme based on Finite Elements computations has been applied. The predicted behavior was in agreement with experimental results. In this paper, simplified closed-form solutions are derived in order to avoid FE modeling. Both cases of narrow gaps of CLT panels and wide gaps of innovative lightweight panels are investigated. CLT and timber panels with gaps are modeled as a space frame of beams connected with wooden blocks. The contribution of both beams and blocks to the panel’s mechanical response is taken into account, leading to closed-form expressions for predicting the panel’s stiffnesses and maximum longitudinal and rolling shear stresses. The derived closed-form solutions are in agreement with the reference FE results and they can be used for practical design purposes.
In the present paper, the influence of periodic gaps between lamellas of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) on the panel’s elastic behavior is analyzed by means of a periodic homogenization scheme for thick plates having periodic geometry. Both small gaps, due to the fabrication process of not-gluing lateral lamellas, and wider gaps are investigated. The results obtained with the periodic homogenization scheme are compared to existing closed-form solutions and available experimental data. It appears that the plate bending stiffness can be well predicted with both homogenization and simplified methods, while only the homogenization approach is in agreement with the experimental in-plane and out-of-plane shear behavior. The influence of several properties of CLT lay-up on the mechanical response is pointed out as well.
In the present paper, the bending behavior of Cross Laminated Timber panels is investigated by means of the linear elastic exact solution from Pagano (1970; 1969). The resulting stresses are the input for a wood failure criterion, which can point out the first-crack load and the respective dominant failure mode. Heterogeneous layers are modeled as equivalent and homogeneous layers. This simplified and deterministic modeling gives results in good agreement with a reference experimental test. A comparison is made with respect to the panel’s global stiffness and failure stages within the apparent elastic stage. Finally, parameter studies are carried out, in order to quantify CLT limitations and advantages. The effect of varying properties like the panel’s slenderness, orientation of transverse layers and number of layers for a fixed total thickness are investigated.
