Bending tests were conducted with cross laminated timber (CLT) panels made using an alternating layer arrangement. Boards of Norway spruce were used to manufacture five-layer panels on an industrial CLT production line. In total, 20 samples were tested, consisting of two CLT configurations with 10 samples of each type: transverse layers at 45° and the conventional 90° arrangement. Sample dimensions were 95 mm × 590 mm × 2000 mm. The CLT panels were tested by four point bending in the main load-carrying direction in a flatwise panel layup. The results indicated that bending strength increased by 35% for elements assembled with 45° layers in comparison with 90° layers. Improved mechanical load bearing panel properties could lead to a larger span length with less material.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is an innovative engineering wood product made by gluing layers of solid-sawn lumber at perpendicular angles. The commonly used wood species for CLT manufacturing include spruce-pine-fir (SPF), douglas fir-larch, and southern pine lumber. With the hope of broadening the wood species for CLT manufacturing, the purposes of this study include evaluating the mechanical properties of black spruce CLT and analyzing the influence of CLT thickness on its bending or shear properties. In this paper, bending, shear, and compressive tests were conducted respectively on 3-layer CLT panels with a thickness of 105 mm and on 5-layer CLT panels with a thickness of 155 mm, both of which were fabricated with No. 2-grade Canadian black spruce. Their bending or shear resisting properties as well as the failure modes were analyzed. Furthermore, comparison of mechanical properties was conducted between the black spruce CLT panels and the CLT panels fabricated with some other common wood species. Finally, for both the CLT bending panels and the CLT shear panels, their numerical models were developed and calibrated with the experimental results. For the CLT bending panels, results show that increasing the CLT thickness whilst maintaining identical span-to-thickness ratios can even slightly reduce the characteristic bending strength of the black spruce CLT. For the CLT shear panels, results show that increasing the CLT thickness whilst maintaining identical span-to-thickness ratios has little enhancement on their characteristic shear strength. For the CLT bending panels, their effective bending stiffness based on the Shear Analogy theory can be used as a more accurate prediction on their experiment-based global bending stiffness. The model of the CLT bending specimens is capable of predicting their bending properties; whereas, the model of the CLT shear specimens would underestimate their ultimate shear resisting capacity due to the absence of the rolling shear mechanism in the model, although the elastic stiffness can be predicted accurately. Overall, it is attested that the black spruce CLT can provide ideal bending or shear properties, which can be comparable to those of the CLT fabricated with other commonly used wood species. Besides, further efforts should focus on developing a numerical model that can consider the influence of the rolling shear mechanism.
The force-displacement behaviour of structural timber members subjected to axial compression or combined axial compression and bending is distinctively non-linear. This behaviour is caused by the non-linear increase of the deformation due to the increasing eccentricity of the axial load as well as by the non-linear material behaviour of timber when subjected to compression. The present report describes experimental investigations on glued laminated timber members subjected to eccentric compression. The aim of these experimental investigations was to create a data base, which can be used to validate theoretical calculation models and to assess the accurateness of the design approaches given in the design codes for timber structures.
The specimens for the main bunch of experiments were produced using lamellas made of Norway spruce grown in Switzerland. For this purpose, a total of 336 lamellas were available. In the first step, non-destructive tests on the lamellas were performed. These tests aimed at the collection of data in order to characterise the raw material.
In the second step, the lamellas were strength graded. The aim of the grading process was to select two classes of lamellas for the production of the test specimens. The lamellas were selected so that they were suitable to produce glued laminated timber of strength classes GL24h and GL32h. Within the grading process, visual grading criteria as well as machine grading criteria were used.
In the third step, the graded lamellas were used to produce glued laminated timber members. Five tests series were produced. Each of the test series consisted of ten specimens. Three series were made of glued laminated timber GL24h and two series were made of glued laminated timber GL32h. The length of the timber members was varied between the different test series. The lengths were L = 1’400 mm, L = 2’300 mm and L = 3’200 mm respectively. During the production, the setup of the test specimens was recorded. Hence, the position and the orientation of every lamella within the test specimen were documented. Additionally, some non-destructive tests were performed using the test specimens.
In the last step, the glued laminated timber members were subjected to buckling tests. The test specimens were loaded with an eccentric compression force up to failure. During the tests, different measurements were carried out in order to document the experimental investigations as accurate as possible. Amongst others, the applied loads as well as horizontal and vertical deformations were recorded. For a subsample of 20 test specimens, additional local deformation measurements were performed using an optical measurement device.
Key point to development of environmentally friendly timber structures, appropriate to urban ways of living, is the development of high-rise timber buildings. Comfort properties are nowadays one of the main limitations to tall timber buildings, and an enhanced knowledge on damping phenomena is therefore required, as well as improved prediction models for damping.
The aim of this work has consequently been to estimate various damping quantities in timber structures. In particular, models have been derived for predicting material damping in timber members, beams or panels, or in more complex timber structures, such as floors. Material damping is defined as damping due to intrinsic material properties, and used to be referred to as internal friction. In addition, structural damping, defined as damping due to connections and friction in-between members, has been estimated for timber floors.
This project studied the effect of openings on the lateral performance of CLT shear walls
and the system behavior of the walls in a module. Three-layer Cross Laminated Timber
(CLT) was used for manufacturing the wall and module specimens. The laminar was
Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF) #2&Better for both the major and minor layers. Each layer was 35
mm thick. The panel size was 2.44 m × 2.44 m.
Four configurations of walls were investigated: no opening, 25% opening, 37.5% opening,
and 50% opening. The opening was at the center of the wall and in the shape of a square.
A CLT module was made from two walls with 50% openings, with an overall thickness of
660 mm. The specimens were tested under monotonic loading and reverse-cyclic loading,
in accordance with ASTM E564-06 (2018) and ASTM E2126-19.
The wall without opening had an average peak load of 111.8 kN. It had little internal
deformation and the failure occurred at the connections. With a 25% opening, deformation
within the wall was observed but the failure remained at the connections. It had the same
peak load as the full wall. When the opening was increased to 37.5%, the peak load
decreased by 6% to 104.9 kN and the specimens failed in wood at the corners of the
opening. Further increasing the opening to 50%, the peak load dropped drastically to 63.4
kN, only 57% of the full wall.
The load-displacement relationship was approximately linear until the load reached 60%
of the peak or more. Compared to the full wall, the wall with 25% opening had 65% of the
stiffness. When the opening increased to 37.5% and 50%, the stiffness reduced to 50% and
24% of the full wall, respectively. The relationship between stiffness and opening ratio was
approximately linear. The loading protocol had effect on the peak load but not on the
stiffness. There was more degradation for larger openings under reverse-cyclic loading.
The performance of the module indicated the presence of system effect that improves the
ductility of the wall, which is important for the seismic performance of the proposed
midrise to tall wood buildings. The test data was compared to previous models found in
literature. Simplified analytical models were also developed to estimate the lateral stiffness
and strength of CLT wall with openings.
The design and application of cross laminated timber (CLT) is s trongly influenced by rolling shear properties of cross layers. Hence, predicting the mechanical behaviour of CLT requires accurate information about its rolling shear properties. In this study, black spruce wood laminates with three different growth ring orientations (flat sawn, in-between, quarter sawn) were edge glued to produce wooden cross layer (WCL). Two-plate shear tests were carried out on WCL to investigate the influence of growth ring orientation on the rolling shear properties. The experimental results showed that the growth ring orientation had a significant effect on rolling shear modulus of WCL, however, almost no effect on the rolling shear strength. The WCL of in-between end grain had the maximum rolling shear modulus of 89MPa and rolling sh ear strength of 2.13 MPa.
An investigation was carried out on CLT panels made from Sitka spruce in order to establish the effect of the thickness of CLT panels on the bending stiffness and strength and the rolling shear. Bending and shear tests on 3-layer and 5-layer panels were performed with loading in the out-of-plane and in-plane directions. ‘Global’ stiffness measurements were found to correlate well with theoretical values. Based on the results, there was a general tendency that both the bending strength and rolling shear decreased with panel thickness. Mean values for rolling shear ranged from 1.0 N/mm2 to 2.0 N/mm2.
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).
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