A comparison of the shear strength of structural composite lumber using torsion and shear block tests

The objective of this study was to compare the shear strength of structural composite lumber (SCL) based on shear block to that of shear strength based on torsion test. Shear blocks in two different orientations from laminated veneer lumber, parallel strand lumber, and laminated strand lumber (LSL) were tested and their shear strengths were compared to the shear strengths of full-sized specimens based on torsion tests from the literature. The results showed that the shear strength based on torsion is 12 to 39 percent lower than the shear strength based on shear block. The failure mode of LSL using shear blocks is predominantly compression parallel. The study concluded that the shear block is not an appropriate test method to determine the shear strength of SCL.

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