Low-carbon buildings and construction products can play a key role in creating a low-carbon society. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is proposed as a prime example of innovative building products, revolutionising the use of timber in multi-storey construction. Therefore, an understanding of the synergy between structural engineering design solutions and climate impact of CLT is essential. In this study, the carbon footprint of a CLT multi-storey building is analysed in a life cycle perspective and strategies to optimise this are explored through a synergy approach, which integrates knowledge from optimised CLT utilisation, connections in CLT assemblies, risk management in building service-life and life cycle analysis. The study is based on emerging results in a multi-disciplinary research project to improve the competitiveness of CLT-based building systems through optimised structural engineering design and reduced climate impact. The impacts associated with material production, construction, service-life and end-of-life stages are analysed using a process-based life cycle analysis approach. The consequences of CLT panels and connection configurations are explored in the production and construction stages, the implications of plausible replacement scenarios are analysed during the service-life stage, and in the end-of-life stage the impacts of connection configuration for post-use material recovery and carbon footprint are analysed. The analyses show that a reduction of up to 43% in the life cycle carbon footprint can be achieved when employing the synergy approach. This study demonstrates the significance of the synergy between structural engineering design solutions and carbon footprint in CLT buildings.

Red oak wood (Quercus rubraL.) samples were submitted to an enzymatic treatment with a commercial mixture of hemicellulases aiming at the selective depolymerization and removal of the hemicelluloses. Mechanical properties of treated samples were characterized and compared with untreated samples at two hierarchical levels. At the macrolevel, tensile properties revealed to be less sensitive to degradation of the cell wall matrix compared to compression and hardness properties. Results obtained through indentation at the microlevel indicated that hardness and the so-called reduced modulus of treated wood were significantly lowered. Accordingly, hardness and reduced elastic modulus have proven to be most sensitive to modification of the cell wall matrix by reducing the content of hemicelluloses. It is proposed that transversal and shear stresses, which are mainly carried by the cell wall matrix, are additional parameters having strong effects on elastic modulus obtained by nanoindentation. Micromechanical modeling was employed to confirm the observed changes. There is consistency between the measured and the modeled properties, obtained at both the microlevel and the macrolevel of wood.

Wood strength is highly anisotropic, due to the inherent structural hierarchy of the material. In the framework of a combined random‐periodic multiscale poro‐micromechanics model, we here translate compositional information throughout this hierarchy into the resulting anisotropic strength at the softwood level, based on “universal” elastic properties of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, and on the shear strength of the latter elementary constituent. Relating, through elastic energy‐derived higher‐order strains in a poromechanical representative volume element, the (quasi‐)brittle failure of lignin to overall softwood failure, results in a macroscopic microstructure‐dependent failure criterion for softwood. The latter satisfactorily predicts the biaxial strength of spruce at various loading angles with respect to the grain direction. The model also predicts the experimentally well‐established fact that uniaxial tensile and compressive strengths, as well as the shear strength of softwood, depend quasi‐linearly on the cell water content, but highly nonlinearly on the lumen porosity.