I denna rapport presenteras resultaten från ett omfattande samarbetsprojekt mellan RISE och träindustrin under 2023-4. Syftet med projektet har varit att noggrant analysera och förstå de mest framträdande trenderna som påverkar träindustrin, med ett särskilt fokus på de tre perspektiven: klimatavtryck, cirkularitet och konkurrenskraft. Med tanke på de stora förändringar som sker inom digitalisering, miljö och hållbarhet, har projektet framhävt framsyn som ett avgörande område och arbetssätt för industrin.

Within the project Dyna-TTB, vibrational tests have been conducted on eight high-rise timber buildings, in Europe. A main objective of the project is to gain knowledge about damping in timber buildings to assist in predicting the accelerations, at the top of a building, due to wind-induced vibrations. One of the buildings is Eken (the oak) in Mariestad in Sweden. That building is seven stories tall, thus questionable as a tall timber building, yet an interesting test object. The building structure is made up of glue laminated timber beams and columns stabilized with glulam trusses. Forced vibration were conducted on Eken with the aim to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. Estimates of the eigenfrequencies, mode shapes, and their scalings are useful both in the calculations of wind-induced vibrations and to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcome is estimates of the modal damping values. The damping impacts the acceleration and thus the serviceability of the building, and at the same time, it is very hard to model damping. So, during the design phase, one must rely on previous test data (of which very few exist for taller timber buildings) and rule of thumbs. It is therefore important to gain knowledge about the damping for timber buildings in order to enable good designs of future and taller timber buildings.

Thirty years of building with wood Sweden has a long tradition of building in wood. Today’s tall wooden buildings, often higher than two stories, are based on completely different technical solutions to the ones used historically. Modern wood construction is rooted in extensive international and national research and development – not on a single national tradition. It began simultaneously across Europe, as the rule change was part of an EU directive. Modern wood construction is also characterized by a high level of industrial prefabrication and short construction times, while modern IT is widely used in the planning and production process. Altogether, these factors entail a very different process from concept to completion, to the one used in the traditional construction industry. A whole host of factors determine the value of a building. It must be fit for purpose, sustainable and attractive. It should be eco-friendly and able to be erected and managed at a reasonable cost. Five different organizations have now been interviewed about their experiences and about the property management. All the interviewees are very positive to build, use and manage wooden buildings. Experience they have gathered by themselves and in cooperation with others give them the confidence to keep building with wood. They can meet every present and predicted demand by customers and governmental rule or regulation. The setbacks are few and easy to solve and interviewees can’t find any reason to not build in wood.

Wind-induced dynamic excitation is a governing design action determining size and shape of modern Tall Timber Buildings (TTBs). The wind actions generate dynamic loading, causing discomfort or annoyance for occupants due to the perceived horizontal sway, i.e. vibration serviceability problem. Although some TTBs have been instrumented and measured to estimate their key dynamic properties (eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and damping), no systematic evaluation of dynamic performance pertinent to wind loading had been performed for the new and evolving construction technologies used in TTBs. The DynaTTB project, funded by the ForestValue research program, mixed on site measurements on existing buildings excited by mass inertia shakers (forced vibration) and/or the wind loads (ambient vibration), for identification of the structural system, with laboratory identification of building elements mechanical features, coupled with numerical modelling of timber structures. The goal is to identify and quantify the causes of vibration energy dissipation in modern TTBs and provide key elements to finite element models. This paper presents an overview of the results of the project and the proposed Guidelines for design of TTBs in relation to their dynamic properties.

Although building systems made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) have become common in Sweden in the past 20 years and they have developed rapidly during the same period, steps remain to be taken to simplify the assembly of such systems, especially at construction sites. Current construction methods, however, remain labour-intensive and thus show room for improvement.

This paper describes a novel connection for the assembly of building elements made of CLT. Simple and inexpensive, the connection is fairly insensitive to manufacturing tolerances and enables rapid, more efficient construction than the connections for CLT structures currently used. Test results show the excellent strength and stiffness of the connection, which also allows the replacement of numerous fasteners, including nails and screws, with only a single steel rod. 

Forced vibration tests have been conducted on the seven-storey timber building Eken in Mariestad in Sweden. The main objective is to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. The eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and their scaling are useful to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcomes are the estimates of the modal damping values. The reason is that the damping impacts the acceleration, and thus the serviceability of the building, and at the same time, it is very hard to model damping. So, during the design phase, one must rely on previous test data (of which very few exist for taller timber buildings) or rule of thumbs. It is therefore important to gain knowledge about the damping for timber buildings in order to enable good designs of future and taller timber buildings. The test data shows that the modal damping is roughly equal to 2% of the critical viscous ones for the eigenmodes extracted. The test campaign on Eken is made as a part of the project Dyna-TTB in which vibrational tests have been performed on eight high-rise timber buildings, in Europe, of which Eken is one.

The use of structural timber in residential buildings has increased considerably in Sweden during the last decade. Concomitantly, there has been an emphasis on augmenting the level of prefabrication for such structures. A simultaneous need for education imparted in universities exists, and this paper contributes to this need by outlining a design example of a residential timber building with simple geometry using prefabricated volumetric elements. The serviceability limit state as well as the ultimate limit state have been defined and studied for some critical design situations. The results indicate, for example, that the degree of utilisation in the studied building system for compression perpendicular to the bottom rail in the first storey and buckling of the studs are in the same range - 91 % to 97 % - for the walls separating apartments.

Today there is no standard for strength grading and CE-marking sawn timber of Birch grown in Sweden, which makes it impossible to use this material as structural timber. Internationally, there are standards for visual grading of hardwood in several European countries. However, these standards may not be used to classify Birch timber grown in Sweden without having been tested and verified to meet the standard's requirements. In a project (BizWOOD) run by RISE, 600 pieces of sawn birch wood from Sweden is visually graded and strength tested. The project aims to result in grading rules for birch, either by using international standards or where international standards will be used as references for the identification of defects that will be included in the grading model. This paper summarizes parts of the BizWOOD project and includes 1) description of sampling and timber origin, 2) visual grading according to international standards, 3) strength testing of the material, 4) evaluation of mechanical characteristics, 5) evaluation of grading techniques.

Prefabricated external wall elements for CLT systems

This is a first pre-study to how building with cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a frame system in buildings could be made more efficient using prefabricated exterior wall elements as frame completion for CLT buildings. In carrying out this study, CLT building in Sweden as a rule involves an efficient frame erection of the CLT elements, but with a relatively slow phase to assemble the exterior frame completion. External frame completion of CLT buildings is usually carried out on construction scaffolding, where the layers of insulation and surface layer are built up on site. Prefabrication of the outer layers of the CLT frame that is lifted into place has the potential to save a lot of labor time and thus costs. The report presents requirements and practical aspects that must be taken into account in order for prefabricated exterior wall elements to be feasible in terms of requirements and in practice. The purpose of the report has also been to give tips, inspiration and ideas to consider when producing prefabricated exterior wall elements. In the study, an example solution has been developed with the aim of being wood based to as high degree as possible. The result shows that with relatively simple means it is possible to build a prefabricated wall element that meets established requirements. It is desirable that the outer wall elements are hung in place with the minimum possible finishing work on the facade. When it comes to the division of external wall elements, it is practical to follow a similar division and measurements as for the CLT boards to facilitate handling, assembly and lifting. It should be avoided to have sockets (window panes, door holes and the like) that are broken in its interface between the external wall elements to facilitate uniformity in the dimensioning of the elements. The study shows that it is realistic to create prefabricated exterior wall elements for CLT frames.

Wind-induced dynamic excitation is a governing design action determining size and shape of modern Tall Timber Buildings (TTBs). The wind actions generate dynamic loading, causing discomfort or annoyance for occupants due to the perceived horizontal sway, i.e. a vibration serviceability problem. The DynaTTB project, funded by the ForestValue research program, mixed on-site measurements on timber buildings, for identification of the structural system, with numerical modelling of timber structures. The goal was to identify and quantify the causes of vibration energy dissipation in modern TTBs and provide key elements to finite element models. This paper presents an overview of the project.    The paper also presents measurements using forced vibration conducted on the seven-storey timber building Eken in Mariestad in Sweden. The main objective is to estimate the building’s dynamic properties from test data. The eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and their scalings are useful to calibrate numerical models. However, the most important outcomes are the estimates of the modal damping values. The test data shows that the modal damping is roughly equal to 2% of the critical viscous ones for the eigenmodes extracted.