RC120 SeptOct 2025 - Magazine - Page 38
CONSTRUCTION
“The most interesting thing was the de昀氀ection,” said Davenport. “It de昀氀ected 17 mm, just over a centimetre-and-a-half.
Despite the immense load, the panel remained structurally
sound and did not collapse during the test. It took a severe
昀椀re with structural loading, and it demonstrated good structural performance is what our engineers concluded.”
Ultimately, the testing helped inform the team’s
understanding of how the panel would perform in an
actual building 昀椀re. Before the test occurred, there was
some modeling done to predict what would happen the
demonstration validated the model.
“We had already done the 昀椀re test, we had already done
structural testing and we already had a modeled version of
this, a computer simulation, and it pretty much performed
how we had modeled it,” said Gaglione. “It was interesting
to con昀椀rm how it performed in real life.”
After the 昀椀re went out on its own, 昀椀re昀椀ghters made sure
the 昀椀re was fully extinguished so the research team could
go in immediately to inspect the state of the panel.
“It was really interesting for people to actually see this
demonstration, to actually see the panel catch 昀椀re but then
self extinguish and to see the 昀椀re could go out on its own,”
Davenport noted.
“When there is this big 昀椀re underneath the panel, the
temperature on the top barely changed. So if you had the 昀椀re
in the unit below you…the temperature of that slab would
barely change, it only changed by one or two degrees.”
The test included two 昀椀re scenarios. The 昀椀rst was the
contained 昀椀re and the second was a less contained 昀椀re
to explore how far the 昀椀re would spread on its own. The
second test found that the 昀椀re wouldn’t spread very far.
“During the compartment 昀椀re test the temperature at
the top surface of the concrete-topped CLT panel rose only
a few degrees, even as the under side reached 900 degrees
Celsius—demonstrating exceptional resistance to heat
transfer,” Gaglione noted.
The other HTFS panel is still in the testing lab
undergoing structural testing and will remain there until
the end of the year. Once the research and development
portion of the product development is concluded, the
results will be published.
“The next step is bringing it to market and have an
opportunity to build a building with this product,” said
Gaglione.
“We are in a position now where we are prepared to use
this in an actual building. We have enough information to
implement this technology on real project.”
One of the bene昀椀ts of the R&D project was the
collaboration and having the ability to conduct research
with other partners, Davenport said.
“One of the big things we’ve learned from this whole
process is the importance of cross-industry collaboration.
It’s been a ful昀椀lling endeavour, and a lot came out of it in
terms of value beyond the product itself.”
IMAGES
&
36 RC120 Construction-FireTest-Team & 36 RC120 Construction-Fire-Test
EllisDon’s Building and Materials Sciences team, with the help of its
partners, successfully executed the largest fire demonstration test in the
organization’s history.
ELLISDON
Supporting resilient
communities in Canada’s North
38—RENEW CANADA –SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
RENEWCANADA.NET
