Experimental study on compressive strength performance of cross laminated timber with biodeterioration damage

IRG/WP 19-40883

T Mori, Y Otsubo, R Inoue, M Ikeda, K Kambara, W Ohmura

The mass timber construction has attracted attention around the world. The reasons are due to the environmental impacts and the potential of the strength performance and quantity of the wood. Nowadays, CLT is one of the most important materials for the timber constructions. If we use CLT as a building material, we should consider the biodegradation risk for long time use. From an estimation of future performance and aging degradation viewpoint, it is important to know the relationship between the residual strength and the degree of biodeterioration in CLT. In this study, we prepared the CLT damaged by brown rot fungi and termites, and conducted the compression test with them. As a result, a positive correlation was suggested between the residual stress and mass loss ratio in the decay specimens, although, there was a low correlation between them in the case of termite damage specimens. It is difficult to estimate the residual strength from the mass loss because of the wide range strength at the same mass loss. In addition, the edge gluing had no influence on the compressive strength. The estimation of the residual strength from mass loss was found to be difficult. However, it was found that the rate of damage to the parallel layer may be affecting the strength, because the CLT’s strong and weak directions indicate almost same degree of correlations between stress and mass loss ratio.


Keywords: compression strength, cross laminated timber, decay, termite, biodeterioration

Conference: 19-05-12/16 Quebec City, Canada


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