THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPOSITE CROSS LAMINATED TIMBER PANELS MANUFACTURED USING C16 IRISH SITKA SPRUCE

This study involved the manufacture of a variety of cross laminated timber panels using C16 Irish Sitka Spruce. A number of panels included reinforcement from glass fibre matting and steel rebar. The panels were tested in four-point bending tests to determine how panel depth affects the panel stiffness and additionally, how the presence of reinforcement affects the stiffness. Results showed that as the panel depth (and span) increases, the global stiffness of the panel increases for all types of reinforcement. Additionally, results show that adding the layer of glass fibre matting decreases global stiffness by 6.8% whereas, the addition of the steel rebar significantly increases the global stiffness of the panel by 49.4% on average.<br/><br/>