The structural capacity of laminated timber compression elements in fire: A meta-analysis

Publication date: Available online 18 May 2018

Source: Fire Safety Journal

Author(s): Felix Wiesner, Luke Bisby

Abstract

Modern building construction is increasingly applying laminated timber products as structural members for larger and more ambitious projects, both commercial and residential. As a consequence, designers require reliable knowledge and design tools to assess the structural capacity of laminated mass timber elements in fire. This paper reviews and assesses available data and methods to design for fire resistance of laminated mass timber compression elements. Historical data from fire resistance tests is presented and compared against the available design calculation methods. The underlying assumptions of the thermal and structural analyses applied within the presented calculation methodologies are discussed. The resulting meta-analysis suggests that the available methods are all able to make reasonable predictions (with an average mean absolute error (MAPE) of 22% across methods) of the fire resistance of glued-laminated columns exposed to standard fires; however, the available methods for CLT walls give inconsistent (MAPE of 46% across all methods and 30% excluding extreme outliers) and potentially non-conservative results (up to 88% of investigated cases are statistically non-conservative). Additional research on loaded compression elements is therefore needed.

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