Influence of laminate direction and glue area on in-plane shear modulus of cross-laminated timber

The use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) in constructing tall buildings has increased. So, it has become crucial to get a higher in-plane stiffness in CLT panels. One way of increasing the shear modulus, G, for CLT panels can be by alternating the layers to other angles than the traditional 0 degrees and 90 degrees. The diagonal compression test can be used to measure the shear stiffness from which G is calculated. A general equation for calculating the G value for the CLT panels tested in the diagonal compression test was established and verified by tests, finite element simulations and external data. The equation was created from finite element simulations of full-scale CLT walls. By this equation, the influence on the G value was a factor of 2.8 and 2.0 by alternating the main laminate direction of the mid layer from the traditional 90 degrees to 45 degrees and 30 degrees, respectively. From practical tests, these increases were measured to 2.9 and 1.8, respectively. Another influence on the G value was studied by the reduction of the glue area between the layers. It was shown that the pattern of the contact area was more important than the size of the contact area.