Performance of bio-inspired cross-laminated timber under blast loading – A numerical study

Abstract

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is recently attracting significant attention due to the high demand for environmentally friendly materials. As a result, the number of buildings and structures comprising CLT is increasing. However, CLT exhibits brittle behavior which can be detrimental to its performance under blast loads. The structure of CLT shows a striking resemblance to that of conch shells, which is also highly composed of brittle materials but exhibits excellent damage tolerance. This paper mimics numerous features from the cross-lamellar structure of conch to enhance the performance of CLT under blast loading. Numerous finite element models were developed to simulate the behaviors of bioinspired conch-like panels under blast loading, and their performance was benchmarked against a traditional CLT panel. The energy dissipation, peak reaction force, and peak displacement and velocity were used as the key performance criteria. The results showed that the conch-like panel can improve the performance of CLT under blast loading through several damage mitigating mechanisms, which increased energy dissipation by up to 82% in the low damage regime, reduced the reaction force by up to 11% in the moderate damage regime and reduced the back face fragment velocity by up to 28% in the high damage regime.