Wood moisture content (MC) affects the glued laminated beam (glulam) bonding strength. Selected adhesives were Phenol-Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (PRF) and Melamine-Urea-Formaldehyde (MUF) adhesives with 1, 1.5 and 2% (w/w) carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) formic acid solutions. Douglas fir (pseudotsuga menziesii) from North America was used in the test. The bonding behavior of these adhesives with wood at 12 and 18% MC were investigated. The study focused on the effect of 18% MC on shear strength performance of MUF and PRF adhesives and optimizing the formula of CMC formic acid solution. Compressive shear strength of wood with MUF adhesive with 2% (w/w) formic acid solution at 12 and 18% MC stabilized at 10.6 and 10.0 MPa, respectively, which were 17 and 16% higher than that with PRF adhesive at the same condition. At 12–18% MC, MC had a little effect on bonding strength. However, 18% MC wood with PRF adhesive had 52.2% less initial strength increasing rate than that of 12% MC wood. 18% MC wood with MUF adhesives with 1, 1.5 and 2% (w/w) CMC formic acid solutions had 16.0, 15.5 and 27.0% less initial strength increasing rates than that of 12% MC wood, respectively. MUF adhesive using 2% CMC formic solution required the shortest press time at 12 and 18% MC about 1.6 and 2.7 h, respectively. The strength of PRF adhesive was significantly affected by wood MC and enough press time is essential for the proper bonding strength.

Fast-growing poplar with low wood density has been generally regarded as a low-grade wood species and cannot be used as a building material due to its poor fire resistance. As the fire resistance of wood materials is positively correlated with density, combined treatment using resin impregnation, which imparts thermal resistance, and compression, which improves density, appeared to be a route toward improved combustion performance. Fast-growing poplar wood was modified with a combination of borate-containing phenol–formaldehyde resin impregnation and compression in a transverse direction at varying intensities. The effects of the combined treatment on fire resistance were then examined and discussed. Char residue morphology analysis and microscopic observations were conducted to reveal the effects and mechanism of the combined treatment on fire resistance improvement. The test results showed that fire resistance was greatly improved, including the static and dynamic bending performance at elevated and high temperatures, as well as the combustion performance. The higher the compression ratio was, the better the fire resistance of the modified wood.

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-pull configuration. The test results were presented in term of failure modes, load-relative movement response, pullout strength, and the corresponding slip. The distributions of bonded-in rod axial strain, interfacial bond stress, and relative movement were also analyzed to evaluate the local bond stress–relative movement response in the bond line. The results confirmed that the bond-relative movement response is dependent on the locations along the anchorage length, and the bond-relative movement responses located near both the loaded end and the anchorage end were observed to be stiffer than those at other locations. Finally, the predictions for the load capacity of the glulam joints with bonded-in threaded steel rod were carried out based on sever...

This paper introduces simple glued laminated (glulam) timber columns reinforced by near-surface-mounted carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates (GTMC columns). Twenty-four columns were fabricated and tested under eccentric compression loading to validate the effectiveness of this kind of column. In accordance with the degrees of eccentricity, specimens were divided into three groups. In each group, one column without inlaid CFRP laminates served as a control column, while the others were inlaid with CFRP laminates. All columns were tested for ultimate load capacity, displacement ductility, failure mode, and energy dissipation capacity. Test results show that inlaid CFRP laminates are effective in increasing ultimate load capacity and deformability. Meanwhile, the corresponding analytical model was also derived to predict the ultimate load capacity of GTMC columns. A comparison of the predicted and tested ultimate load capacities demonstrated that the analytical model is generally able to ...

The flexural behavior of CLT panels was experimentally studied. The effects of number of layers, thickness and wood combination on the failure modes, ultimate bearing capacity, stiffness, and ductility of the specimen were analyzed. The test results showed that the flexural strength of the hybrid CLT specimens was basically unchanged, but the stiffness increased by 8% to 22% compared with the CLT specimens of all poplar wood. Compared with the CLT of the whole Douglas fir, the failure mode of the hybrid specimens changes from brittle shear failure to ductile bending failure. Furthermore, the calculation formula of the bending bearing capacity under various failure modes was proposed. The analytical results agreed well with the test results.

The timber-concrete composite (TCC) slabs have become a preferred choice of floor systems in modern multi story timber buildings. This TCC slab consisted of timber and a concrete slab which were commonly connected together with inclined self-tapping screws (STSs). To more accurately predict the fire performance of TCC slabs, the mechanical behavior of TCC connections under high temperature was investigated by numerical simulation in this study. The interface slip of TCC connections was simulated by a proposed Finite Element (FE) model at room temperature, and different diameter and penetration length screws were considered. The effectiveness of this FE model was validated by comparing with the existing experimental results. Furthermore, the sequentially coupling thermal stress analyses of this model were conducted, and the relationship between the reduction coefficient of connection performance and the effective penetration length of screws was summarized. This study gave the fitting expressions for the reduction coefficient of slip modulus and joint strength. Finally, the numerical investigations of the fire performance of TCC slabs considering the char fall-off of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) were performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed reduction law. Comparing the fire-resistance time with experimental results showed deviation of the proposed model was −14.02%.