Airborne sound insulation performance of wall assemblies is a critical aspect which is directly associated with the comfort level of the occupants, which in turn affects the market acceptance. In single-family and low-rise residential buildings, the partition walls, whether loadbearing or non-loadbearing, are commonly framed with studs of solid sawn lumber of 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8. In commercial buildings and multi-storey residential buildings, the partition walls are commonly framed using light-gauge steel studs.
The shortcomings of solid sawn lumber studs form the motivation for this project to develop wood studs that would address these shortcomings to promote greater wood use in partition walls.
The conceptual design and fabrication work and the preliminary test results have shown that are partition-wall stud made out of composite wood material could have the same or better airborne sound insulation performance as compared to the 25 gauge steel stud. The concept is promising, with a manufacturing process and fabrication that would work and be practical.
Forest Service/USDA Wood Innovations Grants
Recipient Point of Contact: Nicole K. Knobloch
Location: Arlington, Massachusetts
Summary
Building on successful work creating demand for mass timber as a climate solution in the Boston area through a 2019 Wood Innovation Grant, Olifant and a national group of AEC partners will do the same for three sister cities and their states/ surrounding regions: Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Denver. The goal is to enable each city to make mass timber a centerpiece carbon reduction strategy for the built environment and to be ready to offer a USFS Mass Timber Accelerator grant program to developers and/or other incentives for mass timber construction. Working in collaboration with AIA chapter partners, our AEC industry leaders will conduct regionally-based comparative studies on carbon benefits of local mass timber construction, cost and procurement considerations, forest sourcing, and current and potential U.S. mass timber manufacturing, nationally and regionally, developed into educational materials for use by AEC professionals and city planners. The overarching goal is to create robust, long-term demand for mass timber construction in these cities and nationwide that will encourage more U.S. mass timber manufacturing investment.
Using Charles and Ray Eames’s famous 1950s House of Cards slotting toy as both design metaphor and structural precedent provides the starting point for a novel building logic (utilising three existing Swedish timber systems) that allows volumetrically slotted units to stack inside of and support each other. Contemporary computer-aided fabrication techniques based on evolutionary algorithms and CNC manufacturing strategies are used to produce a methodology for designing a kit-of-parts system at the scale of the skyscraper, based on the slotting together of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. A catalogue of novel slotting methods is produced, and a number of alternative slotted joint treatments identified that hold promising potential for further development, parametrically design and control volumes, understand the fabrication workflow and constructional sequence on site, and build prototypes of the chosen slotting configurations at scales ranging between 1:50 and 1:1.
Southern Pine (SP) is one of the fastest growing softwood species in the Southern Forest of United States. With its high strength to weight ratio, SP becomes an ideal candidate for manufacturing engineered wood products such as cross laminated timber (CLT). Two batches of CLT panels were manufactured using visually graded SP lumbers in this study: pilot-scale panels in a laboratory setting and full-size panels in a manufacturing plant environment. The first batch of pilot-scale CLT panels was manufactured at Clemson University. The second batch of full-scale CLT panels (3m x 12.2m) was produced and CNC-sized by Structurlam in Penticton, Canada and shipped to Clemson University for testing. Four types of structural wood adhesives were selected in the panel production, namely Melamine Formaldehyde (MF), Phenol Resorcinol Formaldehyde (PRF), Polyurethane (PUR) and Emulsion Polymer Isocyanate (EPI). This paper presents the manufacturing process of SP CLT in a laboratory setting as well as structural performance verification of 3- ply SP CLT in terms of rolling shear and bending properties. The obtained performance data of 3-ply CLT in both major and minor strength directions is verified against PRG-320 Standard for Performance Rated Cross Laminated Timber. Tested results are presented 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 performances of the existing connection types are unsatisfactory if combined with lightweight concrete. Therefore, a new connection method is proposed, adhesively bonding the lightweight concrete with the timber by means of a filled epoxy resin. Different ways of manufacturing the bonded timber-lightweight concrete-composite beams (TLCC-beams) are investigated in a research project at the Technische Universität Berlin, to examine the differences in their structural performances. Most promising are the test results for TLLC-beams, fabricated with a wet-in-wet bonding method.
The study laid out in this report aims to build on the lessons learned from around the globe and
in BC to promote and facilitate the deployment of BIM and DfMA in the context of mass timber
construction. The study’s objectives were to:
1. Explore BIM tools and software platforms that support collaboration and optimization of
design solutions as well as enable seamless exchange of information in the context of
DfMA of mass-timber solutions.
2. Investigate the potential impact of the use of BIM tools and software platforms on
project and team outcomes in the context of mass-timber construction.
3. Investigate how the modeling process can be streamlined to minimize waste and
optimize the DfMA process in the context of mass-timber construction.
4. Investigate the readiness of manufacturers and installer/assemblers to supply BIM data
for products and systems.
5. Propose recommendations to position the supply chain to design, manufacture and
assemble mass-timber structures.
6. Propose recommendations that identify future training requirements for BIM enabled
DfMA in the context of mass-timber construction.
Additive manufacturing of fully recyclable walls, made of a composite of renewable secondary resources, offers the wood construction industry the possibility to manufacture structures within a circular economy. The newly developed composite material is extruded in a dry state before using water and heat to ensure proper bonding. Following a summary of the state of the art, concepts for material, manufacturing, application and recycling are presented. First preliminary experiments and an evaluation of the environmental impact show the potential of the innovative strategy. Considering the obtained results, current issues and future research demand are presented.
International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
Research Status
Complete
Notes
August 4–7, 2013, Portland, Oregon, USA
Summary
As sustainable building design practices become more prevalent in today’s construction market, designers are looking to alternative materials for novel design strategies. This paper presents a case study comparing the sustainability performance of cross laminated timber (CLT) and reinforced concrete. A comparative sustainability assessment of cross laminated timber and concrete, considering economic, environmental, and social aspects was performed. Environmental impact is measured in terms of CO2 equivalent, economic impact is measured with total sector cost (including sector interdependencies), and qualitative metrics were considered for social impact. In order to conduct an accurate performance comparison, a functional unit of building facade volume was chosen for each product. For this paper, several end-of-life strategies were modeled for CLT and concrete facades. To understand environmental, economic, and social impact, three different scenarios were analyzed to compare performance of both CLT and concrete, including cradle to gate product manufacturing, manufacturing with landfill end-of-life, and manufacturing with recycling end-of-life. Environmental LCA was modeled using GaBi 5.0 Education Edition, which includes its own database for elements including materials, processes, and transportation. To compare the economic impact, Carnegie Mellon’s EIO-LCA online tool is used. Finally, social life cycle impact was considered by identifying process attributes of both products that affect the social domain. Based on this analysis, the use of CLT has a significantly lower environmental impact than concrete, however there are additional costs.
Cross laminated timber (CLT) is a new engineered wood product that has experienced rapid growth and market acceptance for residential and non-residential construction in western and central Europe. Potential exists for rapid market adoption in North America if manufacturing capacities are developed. Dissemination of information on CLT North America markets, manufacturing capabilities, and product standards are the next key steps for facilitating investment in CLT manufacturing capacities in North America. This paper compares standards for CLT between Europe and North America.
North American cross laminated timber is currently made of softwood lumber following the guidelines of the ANSI/APA PRG-320 manufacturing standard. In this study, the potential of manufacturing CLT panels using various hardwood species and engineered wood products (EWP) was investigated for their compatibility and the impact on the dimensional stability and aesthetics of the end products. Yellow birch, trembling aspen, sugar maple, laminated strand lumber (LSL) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) were compared to 100% spruce-pine-fir group species (SPF) lumber made CLT panel. The bond line performance of the assemblies was tested as well as the dimensional stability and appearance of the panels when subjected to conditions with equilibrium moisture contents (EMC) of 4.5%, 12% and 16%. Results showed that higher density hardwood species were prone to delamination. LSL, LVL and trembling aspen yielded promising delamination results. Best overall dimensional stability results were achieved with EWP inclusive configurations. Aesthetic integrity assessment showed that the use of hardwood for the core layer and edge gluing of softwood outer layers had a negative impact. Overall, the study showed a great potential for manufacturing future composite CLT (CCLT) products using EWP and low density hardwood species. The cost premium of using these alternative materials would need to be offset by valuable sets of properties or by a reduction of the manufacturing cost.
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