SP Norway has carried out full-scale fire tests in mock-up furnished student bed-sits in a cross-laminated timber (CLT) building. The objective was to understand fire risks in the Trondheim Students Union (SiT) student housing, which is nine storey CLT.
The test rooms contained a combination of a mattress and furniture and wooden pallets and heptane, to simulate real room contents fire load. The CLT structure was behind plasterboard and mineral wool insulation. The sprinkler system in the room was put out of action, but functioned in the adjacent corridor. Flashover was reached 4 minutes after a small fire (equivalent to burning paper) was started in the room. The results show that 10 cm CLT structural elements were burned through, faster than would be expected under Eurocode 5. However, the CLT provided very effective heat insulation.
Report SPFR A15101 “Branntest av massivtr” (full scale fire test of CLT structure), K. Hox, 18th March 2016 30 pages, in Norwegian