Search

Building codes around the globe dictate the design and construction of buildings. For most buildings, designers will follow prescriptive code provisions to demonstrate code compliance. However, some buidling codes allow the use of performance-based design to demonstrate code compliance. Performance-based design is usually more complex but allows for greater flexibility in the use of materials and systems. Regardless of the code compliance methods, the combustibility of timber structures and wood products needs to be well understood and properly accounted for in building designs. This paper describes the develpment of a new international guidance document on fire safety in timber building within the Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW) network, written by 13 lead authors assisted by more than 20 experts in over a dozen different countries.

Building codes around the globe dictate the design and construction of buildings. For most buildings, designers will follow prescriptive code provisions to demonstrate code compliance. However, some buidling codes allow the use of performance-based design to demonstrate code compliance. Performance-based design is usually more complex but allows for greater flexibility in the use of materials and systems. Regardless of the code compliance methods, the combustibility of timber structures and wood products needs to be well understood and properly accounted for in building designs. This paper describes the develpment of a new international guidance document on fire safety in timber building within the Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW) network, written by 13 lead authors assisted by more than 20 experts in over a dozen different countries.

Building codes around the globe dictate the design and construction of buildings. For most buildings, designers will follow prescriptive code provisions to demonstrate code compliance. However, some buidling codes allow the use of performance-based design to demonstrate code compliance. Performance-based design is usually more complex but allows for greater flexibility in the use of materials and systems. Regardless of the code compliance methods, the combustibility of timber structures and wood products needs to be well understood and properly accounted for in building designs. This paper describes the develpment of a new international guidance document on fire safety in timber building within the Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW) network, written by 13 lead authors assisted by more than 20 experts in over a dozen different countries.

Building codes around the globe dictate the design and construction of buildings. For most buildings, designers will follow prescriptive code provisions to demonstrate code compliance. However, some buidling codes allow the use of performance-based design to demonstrate code compliance. Performance-based design is usually more complex but allows for greater flexibility in the use of materials and systems. Regardless of the code compliance methods, the combustibility of timber structures and wood products needs to be well understood and properly accounted for in building designs. This paper describes the develpment of a new international guidance document on fire safety in timber building within the Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW) network, written by 13 lead authors assisted by more than 20 experts in over a dozen different countries.

Building codes around the globe dictate the design and construction of buildings. For most buildings, designers will follow prescriptive code provisions to demonstrate code compliance. However, some buidling codes allow the use of performance-based design to demonstrate code compliance. Performance-based design is usually more complex but allows for greater flexibility in the use of materials and systems. Regardless of the code compliance methods, the combustibility of timber structures and wood products needs to be well understood and properly accounted for in building designs. This paper describes the develpment of a new international guidance document on fire safety in timber building within the Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW) network, written by 13 lead authors assisted by more than 20 experts in over a dozen different countries.

A wide variety of active fire protection systems are available to fire safety practitioners. In addition to passive fire protection measures, some level of active fire protection is normally required to meet the expected minimum level of fire safety in modern buildings. Active fire protection can also be used to increase the fire safety in order to achieve a more flexible fire safety design and an acceptable level of fire safety in buildings. There are many types of active fire protection systems, but this chapter deals mainly with automatic fire sprinkler systems, since they are often used to facilitate the use of timber as structure, internal linings and external facades in large or complex buildings. Sprinklers are required in some countries for taller timber buildings, as described in Chapter 4.

This chapter provides an overall description of the strategy for delivering fire safety in timber buildings. As in the design of all buildings, the goals are to provide life safety for occupants, safe access for firefighters and protection of affected property. It is essential to control the severity and duration of any accidental fire and prevent it from spreading elsewhere in the building. An important design objective for timber buildings is to control the burning or charring of exposed timber or protected timber, because this can add to the fuel load, and it will reduce the load capacity of structural timber members due to loss of cross-section. Many of the topics introduced here are expanded on in the following chapters.

Mass timber is an increasingly popular material for large and tall buildings. Such buildings typically have higher consequence classes than buildings of traditional timber construction and have higher fire resistance requirements. Architectural demands pushing towards having large surface areas of visible and exposed wood lead to additional fire safety challenges. Previous research has shown that some mass timber products can exhibit glue line integrity failure when exposed to fire, while other mass timber products are not prone to this phenomenon. In practice, it is important to know whether glue line integrity failure occurs, to be able to suitably perform fire resistance calculations (for example using the upcoming version of Eurocode 5) and to be able to predict the fire exposure and duration of fires in real buildings (needed for a performance-based approach). The research presented in this report studies the suitability of a furnace test for determining whether products exhibit glue line integrity failure or not. The study includes the determination of a conservative test duration, by comparisons with conditions of a statistically severe compartment fire. Furthermore, a round robin study with twelve fire tests in furnaces of different labs at different scales, fired with different fuel types has been performed. For all tests, the specimens were made of a mass timber material that does not exhibit glue line integrity failure. The average mass loss rate per unit of exposed area and the average charring rate were determined and assessment criteria were evaluated. Comparisons of the round robin study results have been made, against those of a specific CLT product that has been shown to maintain glue line integrity in numerous furnace and compartment fire tests and a recommendation of a pass/fail criterion is given for a future classification standard.

Mass timber is an increasingly popular material for large and tall buildings. Such buildings typically have higher consequence classes than buildings of traditional timber construction and have higher fire resistance requirements. Architectural demands pushing towards having large surface areas of visible and exposed wood lead to additional fire safety challenges. Previous research has shown that some mass timber products can exhibit glue line integrity failure when exposed to fire, while other mass timber products are not prone to this phenomenon. In practice, it is important to know whether glue line integrity failure occurs, to be able to suitably perform fire resistance calculations (for example using the upcoming version of Eurocode 5) and to be able to predict the fire exposure and duration of fires in real buildings (needed for a performance-based approach). The research presented in this report studies the suitability of a furnace test for determining whether products exhibit glue line integrity failure or not. The study includes the determination of a conservative test duration, by comparisons with conditions of a statistically severe compartment fire. Furthermore, a round robin study with twelve fire tests in furnaces of different labs at different scales, fired with different fuel types has been performed. For all tests, the specimens were made of a mass timber material that does not exhibit glue line integrity failure. The average mass loss rate per unit of exposed area and the average charring rate were determined and assessment criteria were evaluated. Comparisons of the round robin study results have been made, against those of a specific CLT product that has been shown to maintain glue line integrity in numerous furnace and compartment fire tests and a recommendation of a pass/fail criterion is given for a future classification standard.

The role of carbon credits. FINANCING THE LOW-CARBON ECONOMY Instruments, Barriers and Recommendations. Timber buildings can potentially generate additional cashflows from carbon credits, which can increase the attractiveness of timber real estate investments compared to traditional building materials, such as concrete and steel. This attractiveness is however highly dependent on the assumedcarbon credit price and developments on the regulatory level

Finger joints have to meet strength performance requirements for the use in structural engineered wood products such as glued-laminated timber beams (glulam). Among these, the thermal stability of the adhesive used in the finger joint is an important criterion to determine the suitability of the connection. The influence of adhesives on the load-carrying capacity of glulam beams and finger-jointed members can be assessed by large-scale fire tests; however, there are obvious benefits in using small-scale specimens tested at elevated temperatures as an alternative. In Europe, there is currently no small-scale test available to test the fire performance of adhesives in structural timber members. The work presented in this paper addresses this issue and was supported by members of a European standardisation committee to develop such a small-scale test. This paper presents, as a first step, the results of a series of tensile tests on small-scale finger-jointed specimens tested at elevated temperatures. The tests were performed with different types of adhesives which are currently also tested in large-scale fire tests. In the small-scale tests here, structural adhesives showed nearly no weaknesses with increasing temperature up to 140°C. Further, MUF and PRF adhesives showed mostly wood failure even up to temperatures of 220°C. In the next step of this investigation, the results obtained from the small-scale tests at elevated temperature will be compared to large-scale fire test results in order to find a possible link between both testing methods.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

The fire safety design of cross-laminated timber (CLT or X-Lam) in Europe is governed by the Construction Products Regulation and its essential requirements, as for all other building products. These requirements are mandatory, to be used in all European countries. They include classification systems for reaction to fire of building products, fire resistance of building elements, and structural Eurocodes. The reaction-to-fire performance of CLT in accordance with the European classification system is specified. Higher classes can be reached by chemical treatments, but the durability of the reaction-to-fire performance needs to be fulfilled according to a new European system. The fire resistance design of CLT building elements is not included in Eurocode 5, the structural Eurocode for timber, but can be either tested according to European standards or calculated by using design methods being developed recently. This article provides information about both reaction to fire and fire resistance of CLT in Europe. Furthermore, the importance of proper detailing in building design and in practice is stressed. Finally, performance-based design is introduced and some further research needs suggested.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

Engineered wood products e.g. cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are increasingly used as the material of choice for mid-rise to tall construction timber projects. However, the requirements to manufacture these timber elements are considerably different among countries and, consequently, do have an influence on their fire performance. Requirements for sizes of the boards, allowed knot sizes and structural adhesives, among others, are of particular interest. The present paper gives an overview of the production requirements for CLT, glulam and LVL in different countries and discusses how the requirements affect the fire performance of these products.

This chapter gives an introduction into the background and the usage of these two characteristics and highlights important points for bio-based building products. Further, the authors give guidance for research topics, relevant boundary conditions, limitations, related standards and further literature.

Finger joints have to meet strength performance requirements for the use in structural engineered wood products such as glued-laminated timber beams (glulam). Among these, the thermal stability of the adhesive used in the finger joint is an important criterion to determine the suitability of the connection. The influence of adhesives on the load-carrying capacity of glulam beams and finger-jointed members can be assessed by large-scale fire tests; however, there are obvious benefits in using small-scale specimens tested at elevated temperatures as an alternative. In Europe, there is currently no small-scale test available to test the fire performance of adhesives in structural timber members. The work presented in this paper addresses this issue and was supported by members of a European standardisation committee to develop such a small-scale test. This paper presents, as a first step, the results of a series of tensile tests on small-scale finger-jointed specimens tested at elevated temperatures. The tests were performed with different types of adhesives which are currently also tested in large-scale fire tests. In the small-scale tests here, structural adhesives showed nearly no weaknesses with increasing temperature up to 140°C. Further, MUF and PRF adhesives showed mostly wood failure even up to temperatures of 220°C. In the next step of this investigation, the results obtained from the small-scale tests at elevated temperature will be compared to large-scale fire test results in order to find a possible link between both testing methods.