Vibrations in cross-laminated timber floors : Examining standards

Abstract: The report aims to investigate norms, standards, guidelines and experience within the industry for how to design CLT (cross-laminated timber) regarding vibrations induced from humans. The following is being researched, ISO137, KL-trähandboken, Eurocode 5 and a new unpublished working draft of Eurocode 5 final working draft, Canadian CLT handbook and Cross-laminated timber structural design according to Eurocode from Austria.The conclusion is that the literature for CLT is non-existent in the current Eurocode 5 which only addresses timber floors with joists, however the new Eurocode draft suggests an update to include CLT which is similar to the norm CLT from Austria.The report contains a calculation part in which an analysis is conducted for a real project with calculations based on Eurocode 5 and the Eurocode 5 final working draft, the design tool Calculatis and FEM program RFEM. The calculations are compiled and evaluated.The calculation results show differences between the different standards. The natural frequencies are typically the same. The biggest difference is between the accelerations which is in direct relation to the modal mass, and the modal mass differs a lot between the calculations. It is understandable how Eurocode 5 final draft and RFEM calculate the modal mass, but not so for Calculatis as it doesn’t show any calculations in the technical documentation.There is a difference of the modal mass between Eurocode 5 final draft and RFEM, likely because EK5 calculate the modal mass for a rectangular floor simply supported at two or four sides. Whereas the RFEM model is not strictly rectangular nor is it simply supported everywhere, instead there are beams in some places. This suggests that caution should be regarded in calculations where floor structures have been simplified.