Fire Performance of Cross- Laminated Timber
Investigating adhesives, compartment configuration and design guidelines
G. Olivier (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
J. W. van de Kuilen – Mentor (TU Delft - Bio-based Structures & Materials)
Geert Ravenshorst – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Bio-based Structures & Materials)
R. Crielaard – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Integral Design & Management)
Pascal Steenbakkers – Graduation committee member (Arup – Fire Safety Engineering)
Laurens van Gelderen – Graduation committee member (Efectis Nederland B.V.)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Cross-Laminated timber (CLT), and other engineered timber products, are under high demand due to their prefabricated nature and environmental benefits. A key concern surrounding the application of CLT in buildings is its combustible nature and subsequent contribution to a compartment fire. Previous research has shown that exposed CLT, under certain circumstances, can achieve self-extinguishment. This research aims to further experimentally investigate the fire performance of small-scale compartments containing exposed CLT. The focus of this study is threefold, namely to investigate: i) the influence of (commercially available) adhesives used in CLT panels on fire behaviour; ii) the influence of CLT panel configuration on fire behaviour and iii) the ability of design guidelines to predict experimentally obtained fire behaviour. By investigating these aspects, a detailed investigation into fire behaviour of compartments with exposed CLT is presented to characterise the influence of CLT on enclosure fire behaviour and assess the ability of CLT to reliably self-extinguish. In general, it was found that reliable self-extinguishment is promoted when small-scale compartment fire tests reveal the avoidance of burn-through behaviour (and a second flashover), due to the combined effect of CLT adhesive type and CLT panel configuration. The particular observations recorded in this research project (relating to adhesive type and CLT panel configuration) serve as a base on which to conduct further research (especially by conducting experiments at real compartment scales). In addition, the investigation into the ability of a design guideline to predict fire behaviour, namely a Parametric Fire Curve (PFC) calculation method that includes the contribution of exposed CLT to the fuel load, provided mixed results. Further refinement is required to improve the model’s ability to predict compartment behaviour.