This study aims to develop an improved understanding of the interfacial bond behavior of softwood glulam joints with bonded-in threaded steel rod. A total of 39 glulam joints with bonded-in single-threaded steel rods were tested to failure in the pull-pu...
The objective of this project was to quantify and compare the environmental impacts associated with alternative designs for a typical North American mid-rise office building. Two scenarios were considered; a traditional cast-in-place, reinforced concrete frame and a laminated timber hybrid design, which utilized engineered wood products (cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam). The boundary of the quantitative analysis was cradle-to-construction site gate and encompassed the structural support system and the building enclosure. Floor plans, elevations, material quantities, and structural loads associated with a five-storey concrete-framed building design were obtained from issued-for-construction drawings. A functionally equivalent, laminated timber hybrid design was conceived, based on Canadian Building Code requirements. Design values for locally produced CLT panels were established from in-house material testing. Primary data collected from a pilot-scale manufacturing facility was used to develop the life cycle inventory for CLT, whereas secondary sources were referenced for other construction materials. The TRACI characterization methodology was employed to translate inventory flows into impact indicators. The results indicated that the laminated timber building design offered a lower environmental impact in 10 of 11 assessment categories. The cradle-to-gate process energy was found to be nearly identical in both design scenarios (3.5 GJ/m2), whereas the cumulative embodied energy (feedstock plus process) of construction materials was estimated to be 8.2 and 4.6 GJ/m2 for the timber and concrete designs, respectively; which indicated an increased availability of readily accessible potential energy stored within the building materials of the timber alternative.
The present work aims to define horizontal joint dimension tolerances for newly proposed prefabricated façade systems for applications in tall cross laminated timber (CLT) buildings based on the compression perpendicular to grain characteristics of the component. This requires a thorough understanding of structural settlement under vertical...
The two-way action of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is often ignored in the design of CLT due to its complexity. But in some cases, for example, large span timber floor/roof, the benefit of taking the two-way action into account may be considerable since it is often deflection controlled in the design...
In Phase I of Developing Large Span Two Way CLT Floor System (2017-18) we studied the performance of a steel plate connection system for the minor direction of CLT plates. The connected specimens had higher stiffness and strength compared to intact members under bending. In Phase II (2018-19) we designed and tested another connector based on...
In Phase I (2018-19) of this project on Prefabricated Heavy Timber Modular Construction, three major types of connections used in a stackable modular building were studied: intramodule connection, inter-module vertical connection, and inter-module horizontal connection. The load requirement and major design criteria were identified...
This project studied the feasibility and performance of a mass timber wall system based on
Nail Laminated Timber (NLT) for floor/wall applications, in order to quantify the effects
of various design parameters. Thirteen 2.4 m × 2.4 m shear walls were manufactured and
tested in this phase. Together with another five specimens tested before, a total eighteen
shear wall specimens and ten configurations were investigated. The design variables
included fastener type, sheathing thickness, number of sheathings, sheathing material,
nailing pattern, wall opening, and lumber orientation. The NLT walls were made of SprucePine-Fir (SPF) No. 2 2×4 (38 mm × 89 mm) lumber and Oriented Strand Lumber (OSB)
or plywood sheathing. They were tested under monotonic and reverse-cyclic loading
protocols, in accordance with ASTM E564-06 (2018) and ASTM E2126-19, respectively.
Compared to traditional wood stud walls, the best performing NLT based shear wall had
2.5 times the peak load and 2 times the stiffness at 0.5-1.5% drift, while retaining high
ductility. The advantage of these NLT-based wall was even greater under reverse-cyclic
loading due to the internal energy dissipation of NLT.
The wall with ring nails had higher stiffness than the one with smooth nails. But the
performance of ring nails deteriorated drastically under reverse-cyclic loading, leading to
a considerably lower capacity. Changing the sheathing thickness from 11 mm to 15 mm
improved the strength by 6% while having the same initial stiffness. Adding one more face
of sheathing increased the peak load and stiffness by at least 50%. The wall was also very
ductile as the load dropped less than 10% when the lateral displacement exceeded 150 mm.
The difference created by sheathing material was not significant if they were of the same
thickness. Reducing the nailing spacing by half led to a 40% increasing in the peak load
and stiffness. Having an opening of 25% of the area at the center, the lateral capacity and
stiffness reached 75% or more of the full wall.
A simplified method to estimate the lateral resistance of this mass timber wall system was
proposed. The estimate was close to the tested capacity and was on the conservative side.
Recommendations for design and manufacturing the system were also presented.
In this study, the duration-of-load (DOL) effect on the rolling shear strength of cross laminated timber (CLT) was evaluated. A stress-based damage accumulation model is chosen to evaluate the DOL effect on the rolling shear strength of CLT. This model incorporates the established short-term rolling shear strength of material and predicts the time to failure under arbitrary loading history. The model was calibrated and verified based on the test data from low cycle trapezoidal fatigue tests (the damage accumulation tests). The long-term rolling shear behaviour of CLT can then be evaluated from this verified model. As the developed damage accumulation model is a probabilistic model, it can be incorporated into a time-reliability study. Therefore, a reliability assessment of the CLT products was performed considering short-term and snow loading cases. The reliability analysis results and factors reflecting the DOL effect on the rolling shear strength of CLT are compared and discussed. The results suggest that the DOL rolling shear strength adjustment factor for CLT is more severe than the general DOL adjustment factor for lumber; and, this difference should be considered in the introduction of CLT into the building codes for engineered wood design.
This paper presents a study on evaluating rolling shear (RS) strength properties of cross laminated timber (CLT) using torsional shear tests and bending tests. The CLT plates were manufactured with Spruce-Pine-Fir boards and glued with polyurethane adhes...
In order to study the lateral resistance of reinforced glued-laminated timber post and beam structures, nine cyclic tests on full-scale one-storey, one-bay timber post and beam construction specimens were carried out. Two reinforcement methods (wrapping fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) and implanting self-tapping screws) and two...
