Impact of board width on in-plane shear stiffness of cross-laminated timber

Board width-to-thickness ratios in non-edge-glued cross laminated timber (CLT) panels influence the in-plane shear stiffness of the panel. The objective is to show the impact of board width-to-thickness ratios for 3- and 5-layer CLT panels. Shear stiffnesses were calculated using finite element analysis and are shown as reduction factors relative to the shear stiffnesses of edge-glued CLT panels. Board width-to-thickness ratios were independently varied for outer and inner layers. Results show that the reduction factor lies in the interval of 0.6 to 0.9 for most width-to-thickness ratios. Results show also that using boards with low width-to-thickness ratios give low reduction factors. The calculated result differed by 2.9% compared to existing experimental data.