Design Guide for Timber-Concrete Composite Floors in Canada
Mass timber is increasingly being used in construction as the advantages of this material are constantly being highlighted. The many health benefits of wood have well been proven, not to mention its environmental benefits in the context of the fight against climate change.
Extensive research on the many properties of wood in construction, including through the use of cross-laminated timber (CLT), has led to the development of design details to facilitate the increased and safe use of this material in various construction projects. They have also opened the door to hybrid uses aimed at a better response from innovative building systems.
Timber-Concrete Composite Floors
As part of its research work on wood buildings, FPInnovations has recently launched a Design Guide for Timber-Concrete Composite Floors in Canada. This technique, far from being new, could prove to be a cost-competitive solution for floors with longer-span since the mechanical properties of the two materials act in complementarity.
Timber-concrete systems consist of two distinct layers, a timber layer and a concrete layer (on top), joined together by shear connectors. The properties of both materials are then better exploited since tension forces from bending are mainly resisted by the timber, while compression forces from bending are resisted by the concrete.
This guide, which contains numerous illustrations and formulas to help users better plan their projects, addresses many aspects of the design of timber-concrete composite floors, for example shear connection systems, ultimate limit state design, vibration and fire resistance of floors, and much more.
How to get your copy
Design Guide for Timber-Concrete Composite Floors in Canada
For more information on timber-concrete composite floor systems, please contact Samuel Cuerrier-Auclair, engineer and researcher in FPInnovations’ Building System group.
Canadian CLT Handbook
FPInnovations recently launched its 2019 Edition of the Canadian CLT Handbook, a reference document that has been completely revised and improved to reflect changes made since the 2011 edition in recent Canadian codes and standards, including new guidance recently implemented in the CSA O86:19 standard. This handbook, a must-have for every professional interested in building with CLT in Canada and beyond, presents in-depth, multi-disciplinary and peer-reviewed information on all performance attributes of CLT construction.