Nail-laminated timber-concrete composite (TCC) is a system composed of a nail-laminated timber (NLT) panel connected to a concrete slab through shear connections. When used as flexural elements such as floors, the concrete and NLT are located in the compression and tension zones, respectively. NLT panels, being constructed out of inexpensive lumber planks nailed on their sides, offer an economical advantage in mass-timber constructions that complement the structural and building physics advantages of TCC. However, the performance of nail-laminated TCC as well as efficient shear connectors for this system have not been investigated. This thesis presents the experimental study conducted on the performance of TCC panels constructed out of NLT, mechanical fasteners, and cast-in-place concrete. First, nine different sizes of truss-plates and two configurations of self-tapping screws installed in small-scale TCC specimens were tested under shear load. The connections’ strength and stiffness were determined to evaluate its performance as TCC shear connectors. Second, four truss-plate configurations were selected for implementation in full-scale TCC panels. Two panels for each shear connection systems were tested under impact loading and a quasi-static monotonic loading to determine the vibration bending properties, respectively. Panel specifications and layouts of the connectors were designed based on the established -method. The test results show that nail-laminated TCC panels reached slightly higher fundamental natural frequency and elastic bending stiffness than predicted. Furthermore, failure did not occur until loading reached 5 to 7 times the serviceability requirements. The selected truss-plates shear connection demonstrated to be an efficient solution for nail-laminated TCC panels.
