As a cross-laminated product, CLT has a number of advantages over glued-laminated timber (glulam). In particular the tensile strength perpendicular to the beam axis is considerably higher and therefore CLT has a much lower sensitivity to cracks causing numerous damages to glulam components in the past. The basic idea of this research project is hence to develop linear CLT components like beams able to replace glulam members where large tensile stresses perpendicular to the grain occur, e.g.

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... s with notches or holes, members with connections loaded perpendicular to the grain and tapered or double tapered beams. Fig. 1 : Components made of glued-laminated timber are prone to cracking when exposed to tensile stresses perpendicular to the grain In glulam components tensile stresses perpendicular to the grain often result in uneconomically large cross-sections or require cost-intensive reinforcement measures. In CLT components the cross-layers, as an integral element of the product, will provide sufficient reinforcement if they are suitably arranged and dimensioned. Since cross-layers are present over the entire length of CLT components, beams made of cross-laminated timber are also less sensitive to cyclic climatic stresses. Thus they are considered more robust than glued-laminated timber components. Fig. 2: Cross-laminated timber beams are less susceptible to cracking since cross-layers oriented orthogonally to the beam axis take effect of reinforcement