NC State – Clemson CLT Panel Project Funded by USDA
Project Title: Development of Solid and Hollow-Core Cross-Laminated Timber Systems for Low- and Mid-Rise Construction
The forest products industry constitutes a very important segment of the nation’s economy. Over the past few years, the forest products industry has experienced significant job losses and plant closings due to outsourcing, the recent economic crisis, and the collapse of the US housing market. Cross Laminated Timber is a construction system that many foresee as having tremendous potential to displace concrete, masonry, and steel in low- and mid-rise residential and commercial construction. Thus, CLT could very well help grow the market for wood in the US and improve the forest products industry’s competitiveness.
The goal of this project is to foster the use of southern pine to manufacture CLT panels for use in North American construction. Product performance data will feed into efforts to gain building code approval and eventual public acceptance of southern pine CLT. This proposal will produce both laboratory- and full-size 3-layer and 5-layer CLT panels. Both solid and hollow-core panels will be evaluated. Bond evaluation of three different adhesives, measurement of hygrothermal properties, and evaluation of basic mechanical properties on laboratory size CLT panels will be performed. Fire and structural performance of full-size panels will also be tested. Structural and cost comparisons of CLT buildings and those made of concrete/steel will be performed. The research results will be communicated to stakeholders through the project’s extension component. The close integration of the project’s research initiative with extension efforts will deliver science-based information that are relevant to USDA’s goal of economic viability for the forestry sector.
The CLT Panel blog is an outreach function of a joint project conducted by NC State University, Clemson University and the USDA Forest Products Lab. The three year project is sponsored by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The goal of the blog is to keep stakeholders and interested parties abreast of project progress, inform them of CLT industry related news in North America, allow them to network among themselves, and (in the future) direct them to the CLT web site.