Fast + Epp Completes Six-Month Point-Supported CLT Testing Program

Fast + Epp, a Vancouver, BC-based consulting engineering firm, has completed a six-month point-supported cross laminated timber (CLT) testing program, according to Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine (2-13-24). The test was conducted at Concept Lab, Fast + Epp’s research and development space dedicated to advancing structural design.

During the testing, lab teams experimented with six repetitions of many variables for a point-supported CLT floor system, including different wood species, manufacturers, panel grades, screw reinforcing patterns, panel thicknesses and geometries, column types and locations, and baseplate geometries. In total, they conducted 180 tests of 30 different configurations.

Now that the lab has completed punching shear testing of floor and roof systems, additional full-scale panel testing is scheduled at Prince George’s University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). The data from the testing program—undertaken in partnership with UNBC, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) program, and the CleanBC Building Innovation Fund—will be shared publicly and sent to code-review committee members.

According to Canadian Consulting Engineer, the goal is for point-supported CLT to be recognized in future Canadian building codes as an engineered mass-timber building system, so as to help engineers better understand how to design, analyze, and detail panels for their projects, maximizing the use of timber as a sustainable resource. Numerous papers on the testing program are already available from Fast + Epp.