High-Fire-Resistance Glulam Connections for Tall Timber Buildings

Tall timber buildings generally require fire resistance ratings of 90 minutes, 120 minutes or more. The vast majority of fire tested structural timber connections, however, did not reach a fire resistance that was relevant for these buildings. Commonly timber connections between glued laminated timber members comprise of exposed steel fasteners, such as bolts, screws, nails and dowels. However, it has previously been concluded that connections with exposed steel fasteners, generally do not achieve fire resistance ratings of 30 minutes and are, therefore, inadequate to be implemented in tall timber buildings without fire encapsulation. The research project presented in this report consists of four connection fire tests that are designed to achieve structural fire resistance ratings of 90 minutes, using different design strategies. This goal was achieved for all tested column-beam connections. A single test of a moment resisting connection did not lead to a fire resistance rating of 90 minutes, due to timber failure at the smallest cross-section after 86 minutes. The low temperature of the steel fasteners and the limited rotation of the connection, however, suggest that the connection would have been capable of achieving a 90 minutes fire resistance rating if larger beam cross-sections would be used