The optimisation of wood-based mass-panels for Australian building systems

Developing high performance panel construction designs suitable for local manufacture through comprehensive modelling, prototyping, semi-industrial and full-scale manufacturing.

This project aims to deliver technical tools, training and demonstration that will support local industry to supply the building sector with a versatile palette of high performance products from which to design and construct innovative timber buildings. This will include a review of the latest developments in mass-panel products / systems and design, in order to identify priority products / systems that have immediate suitability for the Australian forest product and constructions industries.

We aim to encourage the commercial manufacture and acceptance of a wider range of locally manufactured wood-based building solutions for mid to tall construction projects, by developing tools to support the efficient design and manufacture of select mass-panel product/systems, and providing supporting technical information and test data on the performances of those systems. 
 

Research Showcase

Published Articles

Tiny House - Big Idea
On the grounds of The University of Queensland (UQ), near the Advanced Engineering Building, there is a Tiny House on display until the end of February 2020. This house was erected to demonstrate 3E panels which was invented from a collaborative research project on hybrid FRP-timber thin-walled structures between UQ, the Queensland State Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

 

UQ’s Tiny House based on a big idea
The Tiny House, developed by researchers from the ARC Future Timber Hub, has been showcased in the latest UQ's Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology News. Great work Associate Professor Dilum Fernando and his team.
 

Published Papers / Abstracts

1. Optimal stacking sequence for timber laminates_Preliminary methodology – Final
2. The optimisation of wood based mass panels for Australian building systems – Literature 
3. Mass Timber Construction in Australia - is CLT the answer? - BioResources Editorial