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Fire Safe Implementation of Mass Timber In Tall Buildings
Research of the fire performance of CLT and Glued Laminated Timber buildings, with visible wood surfaces.
Click here for:
Post-fire repair Report and Video
Mass timber materials, such as Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber, are increasingly popular as structural materials for large and tall buildings. There is a drive to implement visible surfaces mass timber in buildings to meet architectural demands, which involves a number of fire safety challenges identified in previous studies. As a result of recent adhesive technologies and the implementation of stricter requirements for adhesive performance in some countries, such as by ANSI/APA PRG 320 (2018), there is an increased potential to expose mass timber safely and expect potential fires to decay in the event sprinklers are ineffective and fire service intervention of the fire brigade is severely delayed.
The main aim of this research project is to identify safe limits of exposed mass timber surface areas that correspond with performance criteria used for previous U.S. Building Code Changes.
The project includes:
- 5 real-scale compartment fire test and analysis
- Statistical analysis for the design of realistic compartments
- Predictive modeling of the fire dynamics & model development
- Case study of repairing a fire damaged structure
- Case studies of Extinguishment of smouldering with less water
Shared raw data of the fire tests is available for download below.
Downloadable reports:
Summary report & corrigendum (pdf, 6.01 MB)
Final Project Report (pdf, 22.21 MB)
Facade Exposure Report (pdf, 13.86 MB)
Predictive modeling report (pdf, 2.42 MB)
Rehabilitation of fire exposed CLT - A case study FINAL.pdf (pdf, 4.09 MB)
Mass Timber Data Tests.zip (zip, 4.28 MB)
Facade and Opening Data.zip (zip, 3.11 MB)
Summary
Project name
Fire performance of Tall Wood Buildings
Status
Active
Region
Other than Sweden
RISE role in project
contractor
Project start
Duration
2 years
Partner
American Wood Council, Katerra, Henkel, Boise Cascade, USG, Rothoblaas, Atelier Jones, Canadian Wood Council, Building & Life Safety Technologies, NIST
Funders
United States Forest Service, Department of Agriculture (USFS), Softwood Export Council, Brandforsk, Katerra, KLH, Henkel, Boise Cascade, USG, Rothoblaas, Brandforsk (funder of related project with a separate scope)
Coordinators
Project members
Supports the UN sustainability goals
11. Sustainable cities and communities
12. Responsible consumption and production
13. Climate action
