Natural Full-Scale Fire Test on

a 3 Storey
XLam Timber Building

SELAGEA DANIELA
GROUP3042
 Summary
An extensive research project, called SOFIE and
sponsored by the Italian Province of Trento, on the
structural behaviour of timber buildings made of
prefabricated cross-laminated solid timber panels is
currently carried out at CNR-IVALSA in Italy. The
research project aims at supplying documentation
and information on the use of XLam timber panels as
structural elements, in order to
increase its use in particular for residential multi-
storey buildings.
Following the shaking table test of a full-scale 3
storey XLam timber building carried out in Tsukuba,
Japan in June and July 2006, a natural fire test on
the same building has been recently carried out at
the Building Research Institute in Tsukuba. The
paper presents the main results of the natural full-
scale fire test.
 1. Introduction
Construction industry has drawn attention to new construction methods based on
building systems.Wood particularly fits the requirements of the idea “built with system”
because of its easy manufacturing possibility. An example of a successful construction
system are large prefabricated cross-laminated (XLam) solid timber panels for load
bearing wall and floor assemblies. XLam timber panels have become increasingly popular
not only for residential but also for office, retail and industrial buildings in particular in
Austria and Italy. XLam timber panels are produced in the factory according to the
structural drawings taking into account door/window/stair openings,transported from the
factory directly to the site and then joined on site with simple and rapid connections.
Insulation and facade elements can be connected easily to the timber panels. Unlike light
timber frame constructions, where single timber studs are responsible for the transfer of
the
vertical loads, the use of large solid timber panels allow the transfer of high vertical loads
and guarantee a high building stiffness and robustness. Other main advantages of this
new building system are an excellent thermal insulation and air tightness.
The use of large solid timber panels is also favourable in case of fire, as the risk of
fire spread through void cavities is reduced in comparison to light timber frame
constructions.
Depending on the purpose and static requirement, XLam timber panels are
available with 3, 5, 7 or more board layers. The width of the single boards usually varies
between 80 and 240mm, the thickness between 10 and 35mm. The cross-section is
symmetrical.
Fig. 1 Example of cross-laminated solid timber panel [1]
 2. Description of the test specimen
The natural full-scale fire test was performed in a 3 story timber building with an area of about
7x7m and a height of about 10 m. The building main structure consisted of 4 outer 85 mm thick
XLam timber walls and an inner 85 mm thick XLam timber wall placed parallel to the E-W
direction (see figure 2).
 The floors (incl. roof) consisted of 142 mm thick XLam timber panels connected to
the walls by means of steel brackets and screws. South and West facades of the test building
were covered with insulating and finishing materials while on the North and East sides of the
building the XLam timber walls remained uncovered. The roof was entirely covered with silica
calcium boards. Figure shows the cross-section of the walls and floors of the fire room:

The fire room with dimensions of 3.34x3.34x2.95m was located on the first floor and
presented 2 window openings with the dimensions of about 1.0x1.0m and a door with the net
dimensions of 0.9x2.1m. During the fire test the door certified with fire resistance of 60
minutes remained closed.At the beginning of the fire test, each window made of standard
double glass was opened at one quarter of the width (i.e. the surface opened was about
0.26x0.94m, see fig. 4 left). The window openings above the fire room consisted of double
reinforced glass and were closed at the beginning of the fire test. All other window openings
were sealed with gypsum plasterboards.
 3. Test measurements
During the tests, the temperature at more than 100 locations was measured and
recorded with thermocouples as described in EN 1363-1 [2]. The thermocouples were located on
the room surface as well as within the wall, ceiling and floor elements. At the windows of the
room above the fire room the glass temperature was measured on the internal surface of the
window. The temperature in the fire room was measured in the middle of the room with five
thermocouples placed at distances of 0.1, 0.74, 1.48, 2.22 and 2.85m from the floor. Further eight
flat thermocouples (two for each wall) were placed close to the floor and the ceiling at a distance
of 0.1m from the surface of the gypsum plasterboards.
Two air pressure transducers were placed in front of each window of the fire room, one
in the top and one in the bottom of the opened side. The air pressure transducers permitted the
measurement of the pressure of the incoming and outgoing gas; in the same position additional
thermocouples were placed. In this way for each window the temperature and the pressure of the
gas flux passing through was obtained in two different positions. The gas concentrations of
oxygen, CO and CO2 were recorded with a gas measuring instrument placed in the fire room at
2.20m height over the floor. Two heat flux measuring instruments were placed outside each
window of the fire room at a distance of 3m from the surface of the glass. Two infrared thermo
cameras were placed outside the building in front of the South and West side wall of the fire
room. The fire test was documented by 9 video cameras and photos, as well as test protocols.
4. Fire load and fire ignition
In building fires, the contents (movable fire load) as well as combustible
construction materials contribute to the total fire load. In a typical residential room, the
contents consist mostly of beds, tables, cabinets, electronic apparatus, etc. The fire room was
equipped with two typical mattresses made of polyurethane. As additional movable fire load,
several wooden cribs were located in the module (see fig. 4 right). The wooden cribs were
ignited with common fire starts.
Fig. 4 Detail of the window opening of the fire room (left) and fire load made of two mattresses
and several wooden cribs (right)
 Table 1 gives the movable fire load as well as the additional fire load due to the
combustible construction materials for the fire test. For the calculation of the fire load, a net heat
of combustion Hu of 17.5 MJ/kg for wood as suggested in EN 1991-1-2 [3] was assumed. For the
calculation of the additional fire load due to combustible construction materials, only the
combustible wooden flooring has been considered with a participation factor of 0.5, i.e. it was
assumed that only 50% of the wooden flooring contributed to the fire load. However, after the
gypsum plasterboards and the rock wool insulation began falling off, the X-lam timber panels also
contributed to the fire load. The total fire load density (calculated over the floor area) for the fire
room was approximately 790 MJ/m2. Table E.4 in EN 1991-1-2 gives for rooms of residential
buildings an average fire load density of 780 MJ/m2.

Table 1 Fire load for the natural full-scale fire test

 5. Test results
5.1 Visual observations
After fire ignition, fire grew slowly due to low ventilation in the fire room (at the
beginning of the fire test, each window was opened only at one quarter of the width). The glass
of the window on the South side started falling down after about 20 minutes, on the West side
after about 30 min. (see fig.5 left). The complete collapse of both windows occurred after about
36 minutes. As the failure of the glasses of the windows progressed, the intensity of the fire
inside the room and the external burning out the windows became more severe. Flashover, i.e.
where all unprotected combustible material burns, occurred after about 40 minutes (see fig. 5
right). After 53 minutes the door of the fire room fell off, leading to smoke penetration into the
adjacent room B. After about 55 minutes the fire intensity started declining and the fire was
controlled and manually extinguished by fire fighting actions as planed after 60 minutes. The
window openings above the fire room did not fail and thus no fire spread into the upper level
was observed.
Fire development after about 32 minutes
After 40 minutes (right) after fire ignition
 5.2 Temperatures
Figure 6 shows the room temperatures measured in the middle of the fire room at
distances of 0.1, 0.74, 1.48, 2.22 and 2.85m from the floor (see fig. 6 right). A non uniform
temperature distribution over the height of the fire room was measured during the first 35
minutes, with the highest temperature measured close to the ceiling and the lowest temperature
close to the floor. After about 35 minutes all temperatures rose within a few minutes to flashover
confirming the increased fire intensity observed during the test.
2.85m
2.22m
1.48m
0.74m
0.1m
Fig. 6 Temperatures measured in the middle of the fire room at distances of 0.1, 0.74, 1.48, 2.22
and 2.85m from the floor
 6. Conclusions
A full-scale test on a 3-storey building made of Xlam solid timber panels was performed
under natural fire conditions to check the global performance and find possible weaknesses of the
timberstructure.
The Xlam solid timber panels were protected by one or two layers of non combustible
gypsum plasterboards. The test has confirmed that with pure structural measures it is possible to
limit the fire spread to one room even for timber structures. In the room above the fire compartment
no elevated temperatures were measured and no smoke was observed. Further by protecting
the timber structure with gypsum plasterboards the damage of the Xlam solid timber panels was
relative small.
 7. References

[1] EN 1995-2:2004, Eurocode 5: Design of timber structures - Part 2: Bridges, CEN, Brussels,
2004.
[2] EN 1363-1:1999, Fire resistance tests - Part 1: General requirements, CEN, Brussels, 1999.
[3] EN 1991-1-2:2002, Eurocode 1: Action on structures Part 1-2: General action – Actions on
structures exposed to fire, CEN, Brussels, 2002.
[4] Frangi A., Fontana M, “Fire Performance of Timber Structures under Natural Fire
Conditions”, 8th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), Beijing, China,
September 18-23, 2005, Proceedings edited by Hughes Associates, Baltimore, USA,
ISBN 0-9545348-0-8, pages 1111-1122.
[5] Hakkarainen T., “Post-Flashover Fires in Light and Heavy Timber Construction
Compartments”, Journal of Fire Sciences, Volume 20, March 2002.
[6] Sultan M.A., “A model for predicting heat transfer through non-insulated unloaded steel stud
gypsum board wall assemblies exposed to fire”, Fire Technology, Volume 32, No.3, pp 239-
259, 1996.