Variations in low-grade wood modification and stress lamination

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) trees in UK forests are expected to yield nearly 30% more softwood than current levels in the coming decades. These are relatively fast-growing trees, yielding low-grade wood that is incompatible with standards for glue-based lamination. Alongside this forecasted increase, there is a major worldwide shift towards building taller and faster with massive laminated and engineered wood products, mainly as substitutes for steel and concrete. For making the best use of the expected increase in UK softwood and also to expand the scope of tall wood construction, alternative ways of working with low-grade wood are needed, along with developing new variations of existing techniques in processing and construction. This thesis examines two strategies: wood modification by impregnation and stress lamination. The former involves treating wood under pressure in a liquid solution. Once impregnated, the liquid is then solidified in-situ, grafting onto the wood to enhance its properties through direct molecular interactions in the cell wall. While wood treatments are usually done to increase durability, literature and preliminary small-scale testing suggest that impregnation can also lead to increases in stiffness and strength. Compared to wood modification, stress lamination is a relatively simple yet effective technique, and is useful for laminating wood without glue. Although widely used in timber bridges, stress lamination has found little to no application in buildings, primarily due to concerns regarding losses in prestress levels from creep and the moisture-related movement and shrinkage of wood. Scale models and testing emphasise the technique’s potential for both standard and bespoke structural elements for buildings. Full-scale detailing, construction, and testing of straight columns further establishes structural performance and feasibility. Test results from shearing five full-scale stress-laminated connections show performance beyond that of conventional mechanical fasteners. Twenty-five columns were also tested at full-scale, showing comparable buckling performance to Eurocode estimates for solid timber. Examples from literature and a new detail with overdried hardwood plates, tested during a six-month period, demonstrate that prestress losses can be mitigated to ensure long-term reliability in buildings. The full-scale testing performed in this thesis therefore highlights the usefulness, performance, and reliability of stress lamination with low-grade wood for multi-storey construction.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Fleming, Patrick Hugh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ramage, Michael Hector

• timber
• wood modification
• stress lamination
• prestress
• column
• buckling
• full-scale testing
• low-grade wood
• construction

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/d0d0a15a-9d96-4129-98c3-b7ece598c786/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

en

Author Identifier

0000-0001-9504-6578
0000-0003-2967-7683

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/296397