Strength influencing parameters of iroko glued laminated timber

Strength influencing parameters of iroko glued laminated timber

Hüpscher, Juval (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)

van de Kuilen, Jan-Willem (mentor)
Ravenshorst, GJP (graduation committee)
Hoogenboom, Pierre (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Civil Engineering

2019-08-27

As timber is being used for several millennia as construction material, glued laminated timber (glulam), a highly engineered timber product, exists for about hundred and fifty years. In Europe, it is nowadays common practise to make glulam from softwood species, though in the last few decades glulam made from different kinds of hardwoods emerged. Iroko glulam is part of this development, as iroko is a hardwood species from the African tropical regions. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the bending strength of iroko glulam, as well as strength influencing features. From literature it is expected that the following features are of influence: density, modulus of elasticity, tension strength of the lamellas, finger joint strength and size. Several researches conducted in the past experiments to determine these mechanical and physical properties, focusing mainly on iroko sawn timber. Only few investigated iroko glulam, and none of those focused on finger jointed iroko glulam. In this lies the originality of this work: determining bending strength values of finger jointed iroko glulam, as well as density, modulus of elasticity and investigating mechanical and physical properties of the base material: iroko sawn timber and iroko finger joints. The laboratory experiments included the following: tension tests on 38 unjointed and 38 finger jointed lamellas, and four point bending tests on 12 glulam beams. Also density, modulus of elasticity and moisture content were determined. The experimental results yield the following characteristic values: a lamella tension strength of 17 N/mm2, a finger joint tension strength of 29 N/mm2, and a glulam bending strength of 42 N/mm2 (including size effect according to NEN-EN 1995, 2011). The experimentally determined characteristic lamella tension strength is a little lower than values found in literature. This is due to a large scatter in the test results: a coefficient of variance equal to 0.37 was found. However, if the grain angle is equal or smaller than 5°, a higher lamella tension strength of 27 N/mm2 is feasible. Grain angle is as expected a significant strength influencing parameter for iroko sawn timber. And it would suggest that the strength class is as expected D40 if the lamella bending strength equals 0.6 divided by the lamella tension strength. The ratio of finger joint bending strength (30 N/mm2) and tension strength (29 N/mm2) on the characteristic level was found to be equal to 1.06. This is smaller than expected from theory: apparently the 1.4 ratio commonly assumed for softwood finger joint strength values does not hold for iroko finger joint strength values. The investigated iroko glulam beams with depth 108 mm yielded a mean bending strength of 66 N/mm2 and a characteristic bending strength of 42 N/mm2. Due to the size effect and quasi-brittle failure this figures lie lower for full scale glulam beams, however, strength class GL24h is indeed a safe assumption for iroko glulam beams. These aspects explain the higher mean glulam bending strength compared to the mean finger joint tension strength of 40 N/mm2. A strong mathematical relationship between characteristic glulam bending strength and both lamella tension strength and finger joint strength was not found; however lamella and finger joint tension strength do influence the glulam bending strength. Furthermore, density does not influence any strength or stiffness property for both iroko sawn timber, finger joints, and glulam beams. Although there is a slight positive correlation with both dynamic and local modulus of elasticity of lamellas and its tension strength.

Timber
Glulam
Iroko

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Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Juval Hüpscher