EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FIRE PERFORMANCE OF GLULAM TIMBER FRAMES (PART 1) TEMPERATURES AND CHARRING BEHAVIOR OF THE BEAM－COLUMN CONNECTIONS EXPOSED TO STANDARD FIRE HEATING FOR MORE THAN 1 HOUR

Abstract

In this study, load-heating tests were conducted on glued laminated timber frames to investigate the temperature and charring behavior of column-beam connections of dowels under standard fire heating for more than 1 hour. This paper reported on these results and discussed on the required covering thickness to control the temperature and charring. Wood plugs with 40 mm thickness at the dowel connections prevented that the charring reaches to head of the dowels during 4 hours (heating for 1 hour and decay for 3 hours) for Japanese larch. Partial wood-covering at the beam ends decreased temperatures of the steel connectors.