Compressive Properties of Cross-Laminated Timber Panels Made of Hardwood Tree Species from the Appalachian Region Alejandro Palacio-Betancur, A.M.ASCE 1 ; Sajad Javadinasab Hormozabad, Ph.D. 2 ; Chad Niman 3 ; Paul Masterson 4 ; Brent Sturlaugson 5 ; Joseph Brewer 6 ; Bruce Swetnam 7 ; L. Sebastian Bryson, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE 8 ; and Mariantonieta Gutierrez Soto, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE 9 Abstract: Cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels are an innovative wooden product that has gained popularity in recent years because it has a high strength-to-weight ratio, improves construction efficiency, and it is a natural and renewable material. Therefore, the recently released 2021 International Building Code (IBC) include guidelines for CLT panels for the construction of buildings of up to 18 stories. The construction applications of CLT panels as well as the research initiatives have largely centered on softwood tree species such as laminates, and the ap- plication of hardwood species has yet to be investigated. This paper documents the structural behavior of several hardwood species abundant in the Appalachian region and demonstrates the promising feasibility of using these species in the construction industry with CLT panels con- sidering the architectural and structural behavior and economic aspects. The hardwood tree species selected are abundant in the Appalachian region and this paper highlights their potential as a construction material and provides an insight for future development. Three hardwood species including red maple, sweetgum, and sycamore are considered for this study, and three- and five-ply panels are fabricated to evaluate their behavior. The samples are tested in three directions for compression to understand the orthotropic behavior. Considering the softwood species including southern yellow pine and Douglas fir as a baseline for comparison, a total of 120 samples are tested and evaluated based on ASTM standards. The results show an average higher compressive strength from sweetgum panels followed by red maple, sycamore, Douglas fir, and southern yellow pine in the main directions used for structural walls. The findings imply a potential market for the underutilized hard- wood species in Appalachia, which may lead to future economic development in the region. DOI: 10.1061/JAEIED.AEENG-1441. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers. Introduction Mass timber is the combination of layers of wood to form structural components such as panels, posts, and beams. These can be manu- factured using nails or screws to fasten layers and form nail- laminated timber (NLT), using predrilled holes to assemble panels and form dowel-laminated timber (DLT), or using adhesive to join layers to form glue-laminated timber (glulam) if the fibers of the layers are in the same direction or cross-laminated timber (CLT) if the layers are perpendicular (Ross 2010). The interest in these ma- terials has increased in recent years, especially in multistory resi- dential and commercial construction owing to several reasons. First, traditional building construction contributes to large degrada- tion of the environment from a holistic point of view that considers mining, manufacturing, and transportation of raw materials to building sites. Second, as the global population increases, the de- mand for building materials (and their associated carbon footprint) will increase: the United Nations reported 54% of the world’s pop- ulation live in urban areas and it is projected to increase by 66% by 2050 (ONU 2014). Third, mass timber construction has the capacity to capture and store atmospheric carbon, if sustainably practiced. CLT panels are considered an innovative wooden structural product that have become a viable option for sustainable architecture due to their environmental and performative benefits (Mugabo et al. 2019). CLT panels have been attracting attention for several reasons. They are obtained from renewable resources and are considered as sustainable construction materials because they could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuel consumption as a substitute for concrete or steel (Oliver et al. 2014). They are prefabricated in the 1 Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State Univ., 212 Sackett Building, University Park, PA 16802. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3189-3406. Email: ajp7096 @psu.edu 2 Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Kentucky, 161 Raymond Build- ing, Lexington, KY 40506. Email: sjavadinasab@uky.edu 3 Primary Forest Products Specialist, Dept. of Forestry and Natural Resources, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Thomas Poe Cooper Building, 730 Rose St., Lexington, KY 40546. ORCID: https:// orcid.org/0000-0002-8501-7869. Email: chad.niman@uky.edu 4 Wood Shop Coordinator, School of Art and Visual Studies, Univ. of Kentucky, 202 Fine Arts Building, 465 Rose St., Lexington, KY 40506. Email: paul.masterson@uky.edu 5 Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, Morgan State Univ., 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251. ORCID: https:// orcid.org/0000-0003-4307-4010. Email: brent.sturlaugson@morgan.edu 6 Director of Technology and Facilities, College of Design, Univ. of Kentucky, 112 Pence Hall, Lexington, KY 40506. Email: jdbrew2@uky.edu 7 Kentuckiana Masonry Institute Endowed Professor, College of Design, Univ. of Kentucky, 112 Pence Hall, Lexington, KY 40506. Email: bswet0@uky.edu 8 Hardin-Drnevich-Huang Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Kentucky, 161 Raymond Building, Lexington, KY 40506. Email: sebastian.bryson@uky.edu 9 Assistant Professor, School of Engineering Design and Innovation, The Pennsylvania State Univ., 213 Hammond Building, University Park, PA 16802 (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003 -1609-5801. Email: mvg5899@psu.edu Note. This manuscript was submitted on February 5, 2022; approved on October 17, 2022; published online on December 5, 2022. Discussion pe- riod open until May 5, 2023; separate discussions must be submitted for in- dividual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Architectural Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 1076-0431. © ASCE 04022043-1 J. Archit. Eng. J. Archit. Eng., 2023, 29(1): 04022043 Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Brent Sturlaugson on 12/07/22. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.