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.
FPInnovations carried out a survey with consultants and researchers on the use of analytical models and software packages related to the analysis and design of mass timber buildings. The responses confirmed that a lack of suitable models and related information for material properties of timber connections was creating an impediment to the design and construction of this type of buildings. Furthermore, there is currently a lack of computer models and expertise for carrying out performance-based design for wood buildings, in particular seismic and/or fire performance design.
In this study, a sophisticated constitutive model for wood-based composite material under stress and temperature was developed. This constitutive model was programmed into a user-subroutine which can be added to most general-purpose finite element software. The developed model was validated with test results of a laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beam and glulam bolted connection under force and/or fire.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Conference
Research Status
Complete
Notes
April 13-15, 2012, Christchurch, New Zealand
Summary
The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Arts and Media building was completed in 2011 and consists of three seismically separate complexes. This research focussed on the Arts building as it showcases the use of coupled post-tensioned timber shear walls. These are part of the innovative Expan system. Full-scale, in-situ dynamic testing of the novel building was combined with finite element modelling and updating to obtain an understanding of the structural dynamic performance within the linear range. Ambient testing was performed at three stages during construction and was combined with forced vibration testing for the final stage. This forms part of a larger instrumentation program developed to investigate the wind and seismic response and long term deformations of the building. A finite element model of the building was formulated and updated using experimental modal characteristics. It was shown that the addition of non-structural elements, such as cladding and the staircase, increased the natural frequency of the first mode and the second mode by 19% and 24%, respectively. The addition of the concrete floor topping as a structural diaphragm significantly increased the natural frequency of the first mode but not the second mode, with an increase of 123% and 18%, respectively. The elastic damping of the NMIT building at low-level vibrations was identified as being between 1.6% and 2.4%
We model the dynamic behavior of laminated curved beams on the assumption that the different layers of such structures are perfectly bonded at the interface and can show different flexural rotations from one another. We formulate a mechanical theory and a finite element model accounting for bending, shear, warping and extensional deformation modes, as well as radial, tangential and rotary inertias. The main novelty of the proposed theory consists of a generalization of layer-wise displacement approaches available in literature to the dynamics of beams with finite curvature. The work includes some numerical results related to the free vibration of laminated arches and showing different support conditions and aspect ratios to establish comparisons with different theories in the literature. We observe that an accurate mechanical modeling of curved laminated beams is crucial for correct estimation of the eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes of such structures within a 1D framework.
Initially, timber was considered only as an easily accessible and processable material in nature; however, its excellent properties have since become better understood. During the discovery of new building materials and thanks to new technological development processes, industrial processing technologies and gradually drastically decreasing forest areas, wood has become an increasingly neglected material. Load-bearing structures are made mostly of reinforced concrete or steel elements. However, ecological changes, the obvious problems associated with environmental pollution and climate change, are drawing increasing attention to the importance of environmental awareness. These factors are attracting increased attention to wood as a building material. The increased demand for timber as a building material offers the possibility of improving its mechanical and physical properties, and so new wood-based composite materials or new joints of timber structures are being developed to ensure a better load capacity and stiffness of the structure. Therefore, this article deals with the improvement of the frame connection of the timber frame column and a diaphragm beam using mechanical fasteners. In common practice, bolts or a combination of bolts and pins are used for this type of connection. The subject of the research and its motivation was to replace these commonly used fasteners with more modern ones to shorten and simplify the assembly time and to improve the load capacity and rigidity of this type of frame connection.
There is a need of more advanced analysis for studying how the long-term behaviour of glued laminated timber structures is affected by creep and by cyclic variations in climate. A beam theory is presented able to simulate the overall hygro-mechanical and visco-elastic behaviour of (inhomogeneous) glulam structures. Two frame structures subjected to both mechanical and cyclic environmental loading are analysed to illustrate the advantages the model involved can provide. The results indicate clearly both the (discontinuous) inhomogeneity of the glulam products and the variable moisture-load action that occurs to have a significant effect on deformations, section forces and stress distributions within the frame structures that were studied
Over the last two decades many constitutive models with different degrees of accuracy have been developed for analysis of sawn timber and engineered wood products. However, most of the existing models for analysis of timber members are not particularly practical to implement, owing to the large number of material properties (and associated testing) required for calibration of the constitutive law. In order to overcome this limitation, this paper presents details of 1D, 2D and 3D non-linear fi nite element (FE) models that take advantage of a quasi-brittle material model, requiring a minimum number of material properties to capture the load-defl ection response and failure load of timber beams under 4-point bending. In order to validate the model, four tapered timber piles with circular cross-section (two plains and two retrofi tted with steel jacket) were tested and analysed with the proposed 3D FE modelling technique; and a good correlation between experimentally observed and numerically captured ultimate load was observed. Consequently, it was concluded that the developed FE models used in conjunction with the quasi-brittle constitutive law were able to adequately capture the failure load and load-defl ection response of the fl exural timber elements.
The paper presents a numerical study conducted on a seven storey cross-laminated (X-lam) buildings equipped with translational Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD’s), as a technique for reducing the notoriously high drifts and maximum seismic accelerations of these types of structures. The building was modelled in the finite element software package Abaqus using 2D elastic shell elements and non-linear springs, which were implemented as an external user subroutine and properly calibrated to simulate the cyclic behavior of connectors in X-lam buildings. The used TMD device is linear, and placed on the top of the building. Time-history dynamic analyses were carried out under natural earthquake ground motions. Several comparisons between the response of the structure with and without TMD are presented, and the effectiveness and limits of these devices to improve the seismic performance of X-lam buildings are critically discussed.
During the past few years, a relatively new technology has emerged in North America and changed the way professionals design and build wood structures: Cross-laminated Timber (CLT). CLT panels are manufactured in width ranging from 600 mm to 3 m. As such, fastening them together along their major strength axis is required in order to form a singular structural assembly resisting to in-plane and out-of-plane loading. Typical panel-to-panel joint details of CLT assemblies may consist of internal spline(s), single or double surface splines or half-lapped joints. These tightly fitted joint profiles should provide sufficient fire-resistance, but have yet to be properly evaluated for fire-resistance in CLT assemblies.
The experimental portion of the study consisted at conducting ten (10) intermediate-scale fire-resistance tests of CLT floor assemblies with four (4) types of panel-to-panel joints and three (3) CLT thicknesses. The data generated from the intermediate-scale fire tests were used to validate a finite element heat transfer model, a coupled thermal-structural model and a simplified design model. The latter is an easy-to-use design procedure for evaluating the fire integrity resistance of the four commonly-used CLT floor assemblies and could potentially be implemented into building codes and design standards. Based on the test data and models developed in this study, joint coefficient values were derived for the four (4) types of CLT panel-to-panel joint details. Joint coefficients are required when assessing the fire integrity of joints using simple design models, such as the one presented herein and inspired from Eurocode 5: Part 1-2.
The contribution of this study is to increase the knowledge of CLT exposed to fire and to facilitate its use in Canada and US by complementing current fire-resistance design methodologies of CLT assemblies, namely with respect to the fire integrity criterion. Being used as floor and wall assemblies, designers should be capable to accurately verify both the load-bearing and separating functions of CLT assemblies in accordance with fire-related provisions of the building codes, which are now feasible based on the findings of this study.
