Structural enhancement of timber stud framing using renewable insulation materials

Structural timber studwork framing is widely used in the construction of domestic buildings in the UK. Hemp-lime is a novel low carbon renewable construction material that is increasingly being used in the UK for insulating timber framed buildings. When combined, timber studwork framing and hemp-lime provide a highly insulating, low carbon, energy efficient building system. By encasing the timber studs in hemp-lime there is potential for the hemp-lime to indirectly enhance the structural performance of the timber framing. This paper presents results from structural testing undertaken on timber studwork frames both with and without hemp-lime with compressive, in plane racking and out of plane bending loads applied. The results show that hemp-lime significantly increased the strength and stiffness of the timber studwork frames under compressive and in-plane racking loads while under out of plane bending the timber studwork framing provides post cracking resistance and integrity to the hemp-lime.