David Barber

The use of mass timber in construction is becoming a compelling option when faced with the high carbon footprint of traditional concrete and steel production. However, fire safety standards are yet to evolve to support these designs. Encapsulation is commonly used to protect all, or some, of the timber surfaces and reduce the risks introduced. This...

High-rise mass timber buildings require beam end connections to maintain the fire resistance rating of the beam. Connections where a glulam beam ends bear directly onto a supporting glulam column are commonly utilized because they reduce cost, require only simple CNC fabrication, meet the desired architectural aesthetic, and have high load carrying...

The use of mass timber in buildings instead of non‐combustible materials has benefits in sustainability, aesthetics, construction times, and costs. However, the uptake of mass timber in modern construction for medium and high‐rise buildings is currently hindered by uncertainty regarding safety and structural performance in fire. We attribute this t...

This report is a publication of the European Network COST Action CA20139 “Holistic design of taller timber buildings – HELEN”, established with the aim to “work towards optimized holistic approaches to improve the performance of taller timber buildings and to widen their competitiveness and use across the EU and rest of the world” (https://cahelen....

The desire by developers and architects to build mass timber buildings using cross laminated timber (CLT) and glulam has significantly increased globally in the last decade due to its benefits with regards to sustainability as well as other architectural and commercial drivers. This paper presents novel experimental evidence from CodeRed #02, the s...

There is an increasing global demand to build from timber as it is a sustainable and attractive material. One of the key challenges associated with timber buildings is their performance in a fire, in particular, for medium‐ and high‐rise buildings and when timber is exposed. Research on this topic to date has been performed in compartments smaller...

High-rise mass timber buildings with CLT and glulam are being planned and constructed within the globally. As timber buildings are constructed taller, architects and building owners are requesting more timber be exposed. High-rise buildings are required to have fire resistance ratings for the structural elements that can withstand the design fire i...

Multi-storey mass timber buildings constructed with cross laminated timber and glulam are being developed globally. Where engineered timber such as glulam is utilized, the column to beam connections need to be constructed with a fire resistance rating equal to that of the connecting members. The preferred glulam connectors are either a concealed st...

Model building codes in the United States limit timber construction to six stories, due to concerns over fire safety and structural performance. With new timber technologies, tall timber buildings are now being planned for construction. The process for building approval for a building constructed above the code height limits with a timber load-bear...

Buildings constructed from engineered timber are becoming more prevalent globally as building designers, owners and architects realize the sustainability opportunities with timber construction and the overall aesthetic of a completed timber building. As timber buildings are planned to be taller than many model codes permit, the National Fire Protec...

This article provides guidance to determine the fire safety provisions for aged concrete building structures which have an age of 50 years and beyond. The ability of the aged concrete structures to resist both structural loadings and the impact of fire needs to be assessed through a combined structural and fire engineering assessment, taking into a...

The performance of steel columns in fire has not been fully studied due to the complexity of the non-linear behaviour in stress-strain relationship, thermal properties and large displacements at elevated temperatures. There is no simplified method to predict buckling load capacity of a steel column exposed to localised fire that may result signific...