Experimental analysis on small-scale finger-jointed specimens at elevated temperatures
Finger joints have to meet strength performance requirements for the use in structural engineered wood products such as glued-laminated timber beams (glulam). Among these, the thermal stability of the adhesive used in the finger joint is an important criterion to determine the suitability of the connection. The influence of adhesives on the load-carrying capacity of glulam beams and finger-jointed members can be assessed by large-scale fire tests; however, there are obvious benefits in using small-scale specimens tested at elevated temperatures as an alternative. In Europe, there is currently no small-scale test available to test the fire performance of adhesives in structural timber members. The work presented in this paper addresses this issue and was supported by members of a European standardisation committee to develop such a small-scale test. This paper presents, as a first step, the results of a series of tensile tests on small-scale finger-jointed specimens tested at elevated temperatures. The tests were performed with different types of adhesives which are currently also tested in large-scale fire tests. In the small-scale tests here, structural adhesives showed nearly no weaknesses with increasing temperature up to 140 °C. Further, MUF and PRF adhesives showed mostly wood failure even up to temperatures of 220 °C. In the next step of this investigation, the results obtained from the small-scale tests at elevated temperature will be compared to large-scale fire test results in order to find a possible link between both testing methods.
Fire Safety of Glued-Laminated Timber Beams in Bending
AbstractDesign models for timber structures with fire-resistance requirements usually take into account the loss in cross section due to charring and the temperature-dependent reduction in strength...
Mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume fly ash cementitious composites
The purpose of this research is to separate different morphological particles of ASTM class F fly ash, and study their effect on mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume cementitious mixtures. In this research wet separation of raw fly ash is carried out, which resulted in three layers of different morphological particles. The first layer of particles float, comprise of about 1-5% of fly ash, is identified as cenospheres or hollow spheres. The second layer of particles is measured to be 55-60% of raw fly ash and consisting of porous spherical and rounded particles rich in Si and Al. The third layer particles is measured to be about 35-40% of raw fly ash. High volume fly ash cementitious composites containing second or third layer particles are tested under compression and bending, highlighting a higher strength and ductility in comparison to cementitious ones containing raw fly ash particles. KEYWORDS. Cementitious matrix; Raw fly ash; Second layer particles; Third layer particles.