Experimental Analysis of the Structural Behavior of Timber-Concrete Composite Slabs made of Beech-Laminated Veneer Lumber

Composite, timber-concrete slabs as structural floor systems for office and residential buildings, offer several technical advantages over traditional, exclusively timber floors. The connection between timber and concrete in current systems made of spruce relies on mechanical steel fasteners to transfer shear forces between the two materials. The mechanical properties of beech-laminated veneer lumber (LVL), which are higher and more reliable than spruce, allow the development of an innovative timber-concrete composite slab made of a thin beech-laminated veneer lumber plate and a concrete layer. The connection between the two materials is accomplished with notches in the timber plate instead of mechanical steel fasteners. The structural performance of this system was evaluated with a series of bending tests. The results demonstrated that this type of timber-concrete composite system was able to reach high load-carrying capacity and that the structural behavior and failure modes of the composite elements were strongly influenced by the geometry of the notched connection.