Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has recently emerged as a new wood product that utilizes a large quantity of domestic lumber. This study aims to analyze the effects of width and lay-ups on the tensile strength of CLT. To this end, the elastic modulus of sugi CLT with different lay-ups was measured by dynamic and static methods. Moreover, tensile tests were conducted for different widths and lay-ups of CLT. Results indicate that the apparent bending Young's modulus, as calculated using the dynamic method, is directly proportional to the measured Young's modulus in static method for each lay-up. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of width on the tensile strength in the range of 150, 300, and 600 mm. However, the variations in lay-ups affected the tensile strength as follows: CLT with larger ratio of the major strength direction lamina along the cross-section and with higher grade of lamina in the major strength direction showed higher tensile strength. The estimated tensile strength of CLT, as calculated using the Young's modulus of the lamina of each layer, and the tensile strength of lamina as simple substance was found to be in good agreement with the measured tensile strength of CLT.

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Tests of compression perpendicular to the grain were carried out on laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and timber. The species tested were sugi, radiata pine, karamatsu, akamatsu, and dahurian larch; two sets of sugi specimens were tested, with the sugi LVL products being manufactured in different plants. The strength properties of the materials for different loading directions were compared for LVL and timber. At 5% compressive strain in the same materials, the average stress in the tangential direction of timber was larger than that in the radial direction for all species except for radiata pine, and the average stress in the edge-wise direction of LVL was larger than that in the fl atwise direction for all species except for radiata pine. When the stress at 5% strain was compared in the same direction, the average stress of LVL in the edge-wise direction was larger than that in timber in the tangential direction for all species, but there were no great differences between the average stress of LVL in the fl at-wise direction and that of timber in the radial direction for all species except for radiation pine. There was a close relationship between density and stress at 5% strain in LVL, especially in the edge-wise direction. For all results, radiata pine did not follow the trend of the other species; The large annual ring width of radiata pine was considered to have affected the results.

To provide information on the feasibility of using exploded wood fiber strand (WFS) obtained by the watervapor explosion process in wood-cement mixtures, the compatibility between cement and exploded WFS and its improvement with various additive chemicals were investigated by observation and analysis on hydration behaviors in terms of hydration characteristics: maximum hydration temperature (Zma• and required time (t~ax). The three types of cement, six additive chemicals, and exploded WFS (sugi, air-dried and water-soaked) were employed as raw materials in this study. The hydration behaviors of mixtures demonstrated that exploded WFS had strong retarding effects on cement hydration and completely prevented mixtures from setting. The analysis of sugar revealed that the sugar contents of exploded WFS were much higher than those in unexploded wood and increased to about 20-fold (air-dried) and 10-fold (water-soaked), respectively. The degraded polysaccharides became a major factor and played an important role in inhibiting the setting of cement. Moreover, high-performance liquid chromatography analysis proved that the main peaks representing the molecular weight of polysaccharides in extractives of exploded WFS shifted markedly to a lower range of polymerization. MgCI2 was determined to be an effective additive chemical for restraining the inhibitory influences. Addition contents of 2%-3% and 4%-5% were available and acceptable for quick-curing cement and ordinary Portland cement, respec-

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