Being about a month away from moving my office into a Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) building, I am of course interested in answers to this question. As it turns out, many recent research projects proved that CLT can evidently handle quite a bit of abuse (beyond regular day-to-day loading and use)! I may be biased, but this should really prove the point that CLT is a very capable and resilient building material.
So, without further ado – and for your viewing pleasure – here are three experiment videos that show how CLT can stand up to quite extreme loads and situations.
Earthquake
This seven-story CLT building shake table test was conducted in Japan as part of the SOFIE project by the Trees and Timber Institute of the Italian National Research Council and CNR-IVALSA.
More info can be found here and here.
Fire
This test on a stair shaft assembly was conducted by FPInnovations, Nordic, and the Ministry of Forestry in Quebec.
More info can be found here.
Explosives
This latest set of tests on blast resistance was conducted by WoodWorks in cooperation with the United States Forest Service, the Softwood Lumber Board, K&C and UMaine at Tyndall AFB in Florida.
More info can be found here.