Recent changes to the Building Code of Australia (2016), which allow timber buildings up to 25 meters (approximately eight storeys), have effectively opened a market for mid-rise timber construction of the light timber framing kind. Whilst a few studies have been conducted on the long-term creep behavior of timber subjected to bending (Pecenko, Hozjan, Pazlar & Turk 2012; Mohager & Toratti 1992; Zhou, Fushitani, Kubo & Ozawa 1991), research on the long-term effects of axial creep, which is relevant for mid-rise timber-framed buildings, is scarce. There is, therefore, a need to understand the fundamental long-term mechanical behavior of Australian timber species, engineered wood products (EWPs), and timber-framed systems subjected to axial loading to accurately model long-term creep effects. With this in mind, a base-line experimental investigation has been conducted to understand the long-term axial creep characteristics of different Australian wood species and EWPs, to better understand creep in mid-rise timber buildings.
