Mechanical Properties of Adhesive-Free Cross-Laminated Timber

Abstract

In order to reduce the use of adhesives, the development of adhesive-free engineered wood products is one of the research focuses in timber structures. This paper studies the mechanical properties of cross-laminated timber beams connected by densified wood (DW) dowels. Four-point bending tests were performed to study the influence of the arrangement and number of DW dowels on the bending strength and effective bending stiffness of the dowelled cross-laminated timber (DCLT) beams with three layers. The modified planar shear test was adopted to determine the effective shear properties of the DCLT. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) beams were also tested as references. Although the bending and shear properties of the DCLT were lower than those of the CLT, the DCLT showed a significantly larger ductility. The gamma method is promising for determining the effective bending stiffness of the DCLT using the effective shear modulus obtained from the shear test.