Experimental Study of Fire-Induced-Delamination of Cross Laminated Timber

Published

January 1, 2019

Author(s)

Daniel Brandon, Birgit Ostman, Joseph Su, Amanda Kimball, Matthew Hoehler

Abstract

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is increasingly used as a structural material for tall buildings, due to its structural properties and low carbon footprint. CLT is a mass timber product, which is made by crosswise gluing layers of timber lamellae. Recent architectural trends include having visible CLT surfaces, which, in the event of a fire, can become involved in the fire and act as fuel to the fire. A study by the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF; USA), National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA; USA), National Research Council Canada (NRC-CNRC; Canada), Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE; Sweden) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; USA) has focused on the contribution of exposed CLT to compartment fires. The study included a review of previous compartment fire tests, full-scale fire tests of compartments with and without exposed CLT structures, the development of design methods for engineers and intermediate scale fire tests to identify high-temperature resistant adhesives for CLT. The full-scale compartment tests showed the undesirable consequences of CLT delamination during a fire (i.e. fall-off of exposed lamellas), which occurred due to weakening of the CLT adhesive. These consequences included fire regrowth after a period of decay or a continuation of a fully developed fire. This can make self-extinction of a compartment fire not possible, implicating that the fire will lead to collapse if the fire is not manually extinguished or extinguished by sprinklers. In order to achieve self-extinction of flaming combustion in compartments with exposed CLT it is important to avoid fire-induced delamination. It was shown that fire-induced-delamination can be avoided using high-temperature-resistant adhesives. A test method was developed to identify adhesives that are not prone to fire-induced-delamination under relevant fire conditions. A summary of the test methodology, evaluation and results is discussed in this article.

Citation

SFPE Europe

Pub Type

Others

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Keywords

CLT, cross laminated timber, furnace test, fire, delamination

Citation

Brandon, D. , Ostman, B. , Su, J. , Kimball, A. and Hoehler, M. (2019), Experimental Study of Fire-Induced-Delamination of Cross Laminated Timber, SFPE Europe, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927268 (Accessed October 2, 2025)