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Abstract

For the advancement of sustainable, cement-based construction of buildings, composite elements made of timber and wood-cement compound (WCCs) are developed at iTEC since 2012. Earlier research on recipe development, workability, mechanical properties and recyclability trough combustion of WCCs shows that this material is usable as construction material and not just as material for finishing layers. After studies on structural behavior and eco-balance of single-span timber-WCC composite (TWCCC) slab elements, as well as tests to determine the building-physical performance of WCCs and the structural behavior and design of story-high TWCCC wall elements, one wants to know if it is possible to reinforce WCC to apply it in continuous slab elements. To further extend the application domain of TWCCC-based construction, different concepts for continuous TWCCC slab elements are currently developed and evaluated, in collaboration with an industrial partner. As certain zones of the WCC section in these structural systems will be loaded in flexural tension, provision of reinforcement is principally required. As WCCs provide rather little strength and stiffness, existing concrete design rules for anchorage, crack width calculation etc. may not necessarily be applicable. Furthermore, applicability of alternative reinforcement material should also be considered, as required by the industrial partner. With this background, pull-out tests were performed on specimens with long bond length of traditional steel reinforcing mesh as well as timber battens, untreated and planed, as reinforcement. The paper shows and discusses test setup and results of these pull-out tests. It further shows first parts of a bond stress-slip law. The paper concludes by identifying remaining research challenges in view of a practical application of reinforced WCC.

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