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.
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 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...
The increasing appetite for innovation, performance and sustainability in the Canadian Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owners and Operators (AECOO) community is leading to the development and deployment of approaches, be they tools, technologies, practices, etc., that are causing a significant shift in the delivery and management of built assets. When deployed...
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...
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...
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