Increasing awareness of sustainable building materials has led to interest in enhancing the structural performance of engineered wood products. Wood is a sustainable, renewable material, and the increasing use of wood in construction contributes to its sustainability. Multi-layer wooden panels are one type of engineered wood product used in construction. There are various techniques to assemble multi-layer wooden panels into prefabricated, load-bearing construction elements. Assembly techniques considered in the earliest stages of this research work were laminating, nailing, stapling, screwing, stress laminating, doweling, dovetailing, and wood welding. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) was found to offer some advantages over these other techniques. It is cost-effective, not patented, offers freedom of choice regarding the visibility of surfaces, provides the possibility of using different timber quality in the same panel at different points of its thickness, and is the most well-established assembly technique currently used in the industrial market. Building upon that foundational work, the operational capabilities of CLT were further evaluated by creating panels with different layer orientations. The mechanical properties of CLT panels constructed with layers angled in an alternative configuration produced on a modified industrial CLT production line were evaluated. Timber lamellae were adhesively bonded in a single-step press procedure to form CLT panels. Transverse layers were laid at a 45° angle instead of the conventional 90° angle with respect to the longitudinal layers’ 0° angle. Tests were carried out on 40 five-layered CLT panels, each with either a ±45° or a 90° configuration. Half of these panels were evaluated under bending: out-of-plane loading was applied in the principal orientation of the panels via four-point bending. The other twenty were evaluated under compression: an in-plane uniaxial compressive loading was applied in the principal orientation of the panels. Quasi-static loading conditions were used for both in- and out-of-plane testing to determine the extent to which the load-bearing capacity of such panels could be enhanced under the current load case. Modified CLT showed higher stiffness, strength, and fifth-percentile characteristics, values that indicate the load-bearing capacity of these panels as a construction material. Failure modes under in- and out-of-plane loading for each panel type were also assessed. Data from out-of-plane loading were further analysed. A non-contact full-field measurement and analysis technique based on digital image correlation (DIC) was utilised for analysis at global and local scales. DIC evaluation of 100 CLT layers showed that a considerable part of the stiffness of conventional CLT is reduced by the shear resistance of its transverse layers. The presence of heterogeneous features, such as knots, has the desirable effect of reducing the propagation of shear fraction along the layers. These results call into question the current grading criteria in the CLT standard. It is suggested that the lower timber grading limit be adjusted for increased value-yield. The overall experimental results suggest the use of CLT panels with a ±45°-layered configuration for construction. They also motivate the use of alternatively angled layered panels for more construction design freedom, especially in areas that demand shear resistance. In addition, the design possibility that such 45°-configured CLT can carry a given load while using less material than conventional CLT suggests the potential to use such panels in a wider range of structural applications. The results of test production revealed that 45°-configured CLT can be industrially produced without using more material than is required for construction of conventional 90°-configured panels. Based on these results, CLT should be further explored as a suitable product for use in more wooden-panel construction. / <p>External cooperation: Martinson Group AB and Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE)</p>

Ökad användning av byggtekniken massivträ kan ge ett positivt bidrag till hållbart byggande. Utvecklingen inom datornavigerad bearbetning ger massivträ möjligheten att rationalisera byggproduktionen inom trä. Tekniken ligger rätt i tiden och kommer att värderas allt högre då den tillvaratar materialets karaktäristiska egenskaper. Utvecklingen av massivträ har resulterat i teknikvarianter av hur virke kan sammanfogas till solida element. Ett behov har funnits av en marknadsjämförelse mellan befintliga principer där studien förtydligar grundläggande skillnader för intresserade byggaktörer. Problemfrågan för denna studie har varit: vilka principer för sammanfogning av trä till plattelement inom massivträ är mest fördelaktiga? Detta sett utifrån faktorerna produktionskostnad, hållfasthet och ekologiska övervägningar. För att förtydliga den undersökta byggmetodens nytta i ett vidare perspektiv har det presenterats en allmän beskrivning av massivträ. Studien är jämförande och grundar sig på en litteraturstudie samt företagskontakter med 27 företag i 6 länder. Följande tekniker för tillverkning av plattelement i massivträ har behandlats i rapporten:  Limning  Spikning  Klamring  Skruvning  Tvärspänning  Dymling: vertikal-, horisontal- och diagonalgående samt med skruvar i trä  Laskning  Träsvetsning Studien visar att teknikerna inom massivträ skiljer sig åt. Högst bedömning får korslimmat trä (CLT) när det gäller kostnad och hållfasthet. Med hänsyn till ekologin värderas laskat trä högst. Vid en sammanvägning av hållfasthet och ekologi är den skruvformade trädymlingen fördelaktigast. Dessa alternativ ger valfrihet i synlig yta samt ett effektivt resursutnyttjande av lågvärdigare virkeskvalitéer och lämpar sig inom bostadsbyggnation. CLT är mest kostnadseffektivt, inte patentskyddat samt det mest etablerade alternativet på marknaden dock är utvecklingen av ett sunt lim fortfarande under arbete. I pågående forskning finns ett annat alternativ där tekniken träsvetsning visat ge en starkare fog än lim. Ur ekologisk synpunkt är plattelement genomgående i trä är att föredra, då det ger en sund konstruktion i full skala, eftersom inga kemikalier eller lagerresurser används. Forskning har visat att massivträ har en positiv och hälsofrämjande effekt på de boende i motsats till effekterna av icke naturliga material. / The increasing use of solid wood construction methods can have a positive impact on the sustainability of constructions. The development of computer-controlled processing techniques enables the solid wood timber industry to rationalize the construction of buildings. The solid wood techniques come at time and will be higher valued in the future due to the natural characteristics of this material. The improvement of solid wood methods has resulted in various techniques to join wood into solid prefabricated parts. There is a need for a comparative market study of the different principles of solid wood construction to widen the knowledge and to explain interested builders the viability of these techniques. The key question for this study is: Which techniques of combining solid wood elements to whole boards are the most favorable ones concerning wood construction buildings – leaving apart questions of production costs, durability and ecological considerations? To point out the utility of these construction techniques and give them a broader understanding a general study of solid wood construction has been presented. The comparative study is based as well on studies of literature as on reviews of 27 companies in 6 countries. The following techniques for the production of boards made of solid timber elements are considered in this report:  Laminating  Nailing  Stapling  Screwing  Stress laminating  Doweling: vertically, horizontally, diagonally and with wooden screws  Dovetailing techniques  Wood welding techniques The study shows that the techniques of solid wood construction are very different in itself. CLT of cross-laminated timber scores highest in terms of cost and durability, but if one considers ecological factors, dovetailing is best. Taking into account both durability and ecological considerations, doweling is best. These alternatives give some freedom of choice regarding the visibility of surfaces and the efficient use of lower qualities of timber and they are therefore suitable for residential construction buildings. CLT is the most cost-effective, not patented and well established option in the market; the development of more health-friendly adhesives is still going on. Current researches demonstrate an alternative: Wood welding joins the parts better together than gluing them. Considered from the ecological viewpoint, boards made exclusively of wood, are preferable since no chemicals or not renewable resources are used. Recent researches show, that solid wood constructions have positive effects on the health of the residents of these buildings in comparison of buildings using non-natural materials. / <p>ORCID-id: 0000-0001-7091-6696</p>