Impact loading of glued laminated timber beams without finger-joints

Progressive collapse can be triggered by impact loading from vehicles or other objects and propagated by impact loading from falling debris. Therefore, the correct modeling of impact loading is necessary to assess the resistance of a structure against progressive collapse. As the number of timber buildings increases, the importance of adequate considerations of impact loading is growing. Previous research on impact loading of wood or timber was carried out on small clearwood specimens or on single boards. However, modern timber buildings use advanced wood-based composites, such as glued laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. The characteristics of these materials are widely different from clearwood and single boards. In this paper, energy-based equations are derived for the peak impact force and the dynamic strength increase factor. These are quantified by pendulum impact hammer tests on 95 full-size glued laminated timber beams. The results are applied in a calculation example to demonstrate their potential use in practice.ISSN:0045-794