This chapter describes special features that should be taken into account in the calculation.
Particularly in the case of softer cross-laminated timber panels with thicker board layers, it is important to ensure that the individual layers are not too thick: The high shear strain of the boards offset by 0° and 90° in layers with a modulus of elasticity of E90 = 0 for the secondary direction cannot otherwise be correctly modeled by plate theory for thicker layers. In this case, the calculation is performed with too rigid values!
An extreme example of this is a sandwich panel displayed in the following image. Here, the cover layers consist of thin sheet steel and the very thick middle layer consists of foam.
You can see the problem in the “Shear Strain” model (see the right column). The error is clearly visible in the cross-laminated timber panel with very thick intermediate layers. However, for standard cross-laminated timber structures—also displayed in the model—the error is close to zero.
