Investigation of a proposed long span timber floor for non-residential applications
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2014
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Design of floor systems for commercial and multi-residential buildings in many parts of the world is currently dominated by the use of structural materials other than timber, such as reinforced concrete systems. Recent research in Australia has shown that the major barriers to using timber in non-residential buildings are the fire performance and the lack of designer confidence in commercial and industrial timber-based constructions. In this regard, significant research initiatives have commenced in Australia and New Zealand with the aim of developing timber and timber hybrid systems for large span commercial and industrial applications. This PhD research provides a detailed procedure for designing and investigating the short term static behaviour of a proposed long span timber floor system for non-residential applications that meets serviceability and ultimate limit design criteria, with the use of timber as the only structural load bearing part of the system. The specimen’s responses to long-term loading, in-plane loading, dynamic excitation, cyclic loading and loading history are outside the scope of this PhD research. Moreover, other aspects of performance such as assessment of acoustic performance, dynamic performance and the possible interconnection systems alongside floor modules are not covered in the scope of this research project.
In this study the behaviour of two types of LVL are investigated through a number of experimental and analytical tests. As a result of the tension and compression tests, a suitable constitutive law is developed which can accurately capture the stress-strain relationship and the failure behaviour of LVL, and it can also be incorporated into FE analysis of any LVL beam with similar structural features to the tested specimens. Further, the results of the full scale four point bending tests on LVL sections are used to identify the behaviour of LVL up to the failure point and to develop a finite element model to capture the behaviour and failure of LVL.
Moreover, after investigating the long span timber floors, one system is proposed to be fabricated for the extensive experimental and numerical investigation. The experimental investigation involved subjecting the full scale proposed floor modules (6m and 8m clear span LVL modules) to both serviceability and ultimate limit state static loading to assess the strength and serviceability performance of the proposed system. A continuum-based finite element model is also developed to capture the behaviour and failure of the long span LVL modules and to adequately predict the serviceability and ultimate limit performance of the proposed floor system.
To evaluate the partially-composite strength and serviceable performance of LVL floor system, a series of push-out tests are conducted on the fabricated timber connections using normal screws as the shear connectors, and the stiffness of the connections are assessed at serviceability and ultimate limit state. A number of LVL beams (3.5m “T” shaped beams) were also fabricated using only normal screws as the load bearing shear connectors at the interfaces, and are tested under serviceability and ultimate limit state loads with different screw spacing. Furthermore, a closed-form prediction analysis is conducted to calculate the partially-composite ultimate load of the beams. A comparison between the experimental results and the closed-from predicted results is undertaken, and the results are used for predicting the partially-composite behaviour of long span 6m and 8m LVL modules.
The results of the full scale experimental tests together with the numerical investigation provide a robust model for predicting the performance of any timber beams with similar structural features to the proposed system while the dimensions and spans can be varied according to special requirements such as dynamic performance or fire resistance requirements.
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