Project: Improving the competitive advantage of CLT-based building systems through engineering design and reduced carbon footprint

Project information

Project manager
Thomas Bader
Other project members at Linnaeus University
Jan Oscarsson, Anders Olsson, Min Hu, Andreas Briggert, Michael Schweigler, Johan Vessby, Ambrose Dodoo, Truong Nguyen, Uniben Tettey, Michael Dorn, Jonas Klaeson, Carl Larsson
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University
Södra Skogsägarna (Södra Wood)
Skanska Sverige AB
Setra Trävaror AB
WoodEye AB
Dynalyse AB
SAAB AB
Vida AB
Derome AB
Midroc Property Development AB
Weland Aluminium AB
HSB Sydost
Arkitektbolaget Kronoberg AB
GBO Fastening Systems AB
Växjö Kommunföretag AB (VKAB)
Centrum för byggande och boende med trä (CBBT)
Financier
The Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen), the Synergy programme
Timetable
1 Oct 2019-30 Sept 2023
Subject
Building technology (Department of building technology, Faculty of technology)

More about the project

Construction and use of buildings account for about half of all extracted material resources and a third of all CO2 emissions in the European Union. Therefore, replacement of non-renewable construction materials with wood-based materials such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) offers a great potential for cost-efficient reduction of carbon footprint and improvement of resource efficiency. However, although a quick progress made in the past 25 years has propelled CLT from an invention to a celebrated green building technology for multi-story buildings, it has not yet reached its full potential. There are still urgent needs for research and development.

The overall objective of this Synergy Project is to develop, with a holistic view, crucial aspects of the CLT technology to enhance its overall competitiveness compared to alternative technologies based on non-renewable construction materials, and thus contribute to a green transformation of the building sector.

Crucial aspects

Crucial aspects, identified in dialogue with industry partners concern:

1. Effective utilization of available raw material to produce CLT panels with optimized structural properties.
2. Reliable design models of connections with efficient connectors minimizing costs and labor in construction and deconstruction stages.
3. Instrumentation and monitoring of buildings to ensure maintenance of safety, durability and performance over time.
4. Life cycle assessment of buildings to compare solutions with respect to carbon footprint and maximize the green advantage of the CLT building technology.

Each aspect is addressed within a sub-project by a research team in close collaboration with companies having profound interest in the aspect and in the Synergy as a whole. Company contributions encompass sharing of experience and knowledge, access to CLT production plants for collection of data, specimens for experimental tests, project plans of reference buildings, access to building sites for instrumentation, financing of an industry employed doctoral student, and cash contributions.

Widespread synergies

Many synergies are obtained in the interaction between the sub-projects since e.g. optimized CLT panels (sub-project 1) should consider embedment properties for connectors (sub-project 2), instrumentation with temperature sensors (sub-project 3) gives input regarding potential cold bridges (sub-project 4) etcetera.

Daily communication between researchers, and the fact that several companies are committed to more than one sub-project, promote efficient collaboration and synergy within the project. A project management team consisting of experienced researchers acting as project leader, assistant project leader and sub-project leaders, will coordinate the work with participating business partners. This strong team of scientists and business partners is actively contributing to many platforms for disseminating research findings.

The project is part of the research in the Wood Building Technology research group.

Read the press release for the project, New project will create greener buildings.

Staff