Analysis and design of Laminated Veneer Lumber beams with holes

Abstract

Timber has experienced new interest as a building material in recent times. Although traditionally in New Zealand it has been the main choice for residential construction, with recently introduced engineered wood products like Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), the use of timber has developed to other sectors like commercial, industrial, and multi-story buildings. The application of timber in office and commercial buildings poses some challenges with requirements for long span timber beams yet with holes to pass services. The current construction practice with timber is not properly suited for the aforementioned types of structures. There has been significant progress in designing timber structures since the introduction of timber codes like NZ3603-Timber Structures Standard; however, there are still a number of problems such as holes in beams not being addressed in the code. Experimental and numerical investigation is required to address the problem properly. In Europe, there have been a few attempts to address the problem of cutting holes and strength reduction because of holes/penetrations in glulam beams. However, LVL has not received much attention due to smaller production and use. While other researchers are focusing on glulam beams with holes, this research is targeting LVL beams with holes. This thesis extends existing knowledge on LVL beams with holes and reinforcement around the holes through experimental tests and numerical analysis. An experimental program on LVL specimens has been performed to indicate the material properties of interest that will be used in the analysis and design chapters through whole of the thesis. A wide-ranging experimental program was also performed on beams with holes, and beams with reinforcement around the holes. The experimental program pushes forward existing methods of testing by measuring the load in the reinforcement