Effect of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Connection on the Horizontal Shear Strength of CLT Walls

Abstract

The connection performance between cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and support has the greatest effect on the horizontal shear strength. In this study, the horizontal shear performance of CLT walls with reinforced connection systems was evaluated. The reinforcements of metal bracket connections in the CLT connection system was made by attaching glass fiber-based reinforcement to the connection zone of a CLT core lamina. Three types of glass fiber-based reinforcement were used: glass fiber sheet (GS), glass fiber cloth (GT) and fiber cloth plastic (GTS). The horizontal shear strength of the fabricated wall specimens was compared and evaluated through monotonic and cyclic tests. The test results showed that the resistance performance of the reinforced CLT walls to a horizontal load based on a monotonic test did not improve significantly. The residual and yield strengths under the cyclic loading test were 38 and 18% higher, respectively, while the ductility ratio was 38% higher than that of the unreinforced CLT wall. The glass fiber-based reinforcement of the CLT connection showed the possibility of improving the horizontal shear strength performance under a cyclic load, and presented the research direction for the application of real-scale CLT walls.