Serviceability and ultimate performance of long span timber floor modules

The advent of engineered wood products (EVVP’s) such as LVL and glulam as well as a new generation of adhesives has provided the means to fabricate large section, long spanning structural members with similar structural properties to that of steel or concrete, which have attracted a great deal of renewed interest in long-span timber constructions. This paper presents the results of the tests conducted on LVL timber floor modules, with overall lengths of 6.3 m and 8.4 m (6m and 8m clear span, respectively), under serviceability load, as well as the results of 3 destructive tests conducted on 8m clear span LVL timber modules. All serviceability and destructive tests were conducted under four point bending load, and the performance of these long span “timber only” floor modules arc investigated for serviceability and ultimate limit states. The linear characteristics of the modules, the composite behaviour of the section as well as the failure modes of the system are assessed and discussed in this paper.