Design Provisions for Cross-Laminated Timber Structures

Heightened public awareness regarding carbon footprints has dramatically increased the demand for sustainable construction and has initiated resurgence in the use of wood in tall residential and non-residential buildings. Together with the development of advanced connectors, the introduction of cross-laminated timber (CLT) represents tremendous potential. Reliable design guidance is needed for a successful implementation of CLT in the construction market. While designing CLT panels for ultimate limit states is straight-forward, designing for serviceability limit states as well as designing the connections between panels and the anchoring of the panels to the foundation is a challenge. This paper and the presentation give an overview on the CLT design provisions that were included in the 2016 supplement to the Canadian Wood Engineering Design Standard and the revisions included in the 2019 updated version of the standard. These provisions are limited to platform-type construction with CLT panels exhibiting a certain aspect ratio. The provisions from other leading standards of the world, notably the U.S., New Zealand, Japan, and Europe will also be compared. Considering the global need for more sustainable building solutions, this session is of international interest. Furthermore, the presentation will summarize the findings of several research projects that developed design guidance for CLT structures. Amongst there are the design of CLT shear walls with openings, shear connections with self-tapping screws between wall panels, and novel hold-down solutions to the foundations. Ongoing research is providing findings that are ready for code implementation and can directly adopted by design practitioners.