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An Alternative Building Component, Stressed Skin Panel (SSP)

Ramazan KURT KSU, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forestry Industry Engineering, Kahramanmara ABSTRACT: Stressed skin panel (SSP) is one of the traditional wood products that is finding commercial acceptance and becoming popular again in the forest products market. It has been used for over seventy years for structural and non-structural uses. It may be produced using low-cost equipment locally and can also be assembled onsite if needed. The optimal design and construction of earthquake resistant wood structures can be done using the modern technology. SSP is recommended for the earthquake resistant housing construction for our country that was devastated from the recent earthquakes. In this study, the manufacturing, advantages, design, and use of SSP are reviewed and its importance as the earthquake-resistant building material is emphasized. Keywords: Stressed skin panel, SSP, earthquake, building. Alternatif Bir Yap Bileeni, Gerilmi Panel (GP) ZET: Geleneksel bir aa malzeme rn olan gerilmi panel (GP), orman rnleri pazarnda ticari kabul grm ve yeniden tutulmaya balamtr. Yetmi yl akn bir sredir yapsal ve yapsal olmayan amalar iin kullanlmaktadr. Yresel olarak dk maliyetli aralar kullanlarak retilebilir ve gerektiinde yap alannda birletirilebilir. Depreme dayankl aa malzeme yaplarn uygun dizaynlar ve inas modern teknoloji olanaklar kullanlarak elde edilebilir. GP yakn gemiteki depremden dolay harap olan lkemizdeki depreme dayankl konut yapm iin nerilmitir. Bu almada GP retimi, avantajlar, plan, ve kullanm gzden geirilmi ve depreme dayankl yap malzemesi olarak nemine dikkat ekilmitir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Gerilmi panel, GP, deprem, bina. INTRODUCTION Increasing prices of wood-based semi-finished products indicate in many cases the price of timber has a considerable influence on the overall cost of finished products. Consequently, any technique aimed at improving the utilization of such a raw material is advantageous (Elbez, 1989). Nowadays, some of the traditional products are finding commercial acceptance, and becoming more popular again in the forest products industry. One of the recent examples is the SSP. New techniques, adhesives, and new type of wood and non-wood based skin and stringer materials have been consumed to enlarge its use. Recent developments of adhesives, wood-based composites, engineered products, insulation materials, and treatment processes raised the acceptance and use of stressed skin panels for structural uses. It is an ideal building component for earthquake resistant building construction. Research engineers of USDA, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory developed the SSP technology in the early 1930s. In 1937, a prefabricated house was built using stressed skin panels. According to Heyer and Blomquist (1964), this was the first of its kind ever built in the USA. Today, they are produced in many areas, including North America, Europe, and the Far East. SSP has proved its usefulness and efficiency in commercial, residential, recreational construction, and agricultural buildings. It has been used for structural as well as non-structural purposes for over seventy years usually as a flexural member. It is often used for roof, floor, ceilings, walls, and prefabricated house construction. DEFINITION AND MANUFACTURING OF STRESSED SKIN PANEL Many definitions of SSP that can be found in the references. It is defined by Stalnaker and Harris (1989), Baird and Ozelton (1984), and Hoyle and Woeste (1989) as a panel consists of a plywood sheet or several sheets attached to a stringer (web) or stringers either by glue (usually nail-glued joints) or mechanical means (usually nails or staples) so that, the units acts compositely. SSP is built as hollow, webbed components as well as sandwich structures (Hoyle and Woeste, 1989). A general view of two-sided SSP is shown in Figure 1. The stressed skin system, in theory, is one of the most efficient structural systems (Henry, 1971). SSP is a hybrid composite system that exploits the most desirable characteristics of several wood, wood based, and metallic components in order to create structurally efficient and reliable building materials (Kliger and Pellicane, 1996). The general sequence of manufacturing process of SSP can be divided into ten steps. These are selection of skin and stringer materials, sawing, seasoning, surfacing and planning, end and edge jointing, gluing and assembly, clamping and curing, chemical treatment (if necessary), finishing, and quality control. SSP can be both structural and insulative (Slauhgter, 1993). Insulating materials can be inserted easily during manufacturing process of the panel (Gurfinkel, 1981). Polystyrene, polyurethane foams, and paper honeycombs have been used as core materials. In curved panels, plywood can be used as a core material as well as skins (Faherty and Williamson, 1989).

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Figure 1. Typical two-sided SSP (Anonymous, 1990). Different wood based products have been tried to use as skin materials for SSP other than plywood. The use of OSB (Anonymous, 1990; Bach and Cheng, 1996;), particleboard (Henry, 1971; Kliger and Pellicane, 1996), hardboard (Henry, 1971), plaster, plastics, and also steel tension flange (Kliger, 1996; Kliger and Pellicane 1997) have been reported. The following materials were used instead of the lumber stringer; laminated veneer lumber (LVL) (Merz, 1996), three-ply glulam, laminated strand lumber (LSL) (Merz, 1996), and corrugated wafer board (trapezoid) (Bach and Cheng, 1996). According to Anonymous (1993), following points are vital to choose of stringer, skins, and adhesive. These are: 1. Environmental considerations a. Temperature b. Flammability c. Heat transfer d. Acoustics e. Moisture and humidity f. Adhesive, solvents or outgassing 2. Structural considerations a. Strength b. Fatigue c. Stiffness d. Adhesive performance 3. Economical considerations The gluing and assembly is one of the most critical step in the performance of SSP. General information for the adhesive and lumber was given by Faherty and Williamson (1989) indicating that the lumber members and the plywood need to be rigidly glued with casein, phenol, resorcinol, or melamine adhesives. Elastomeric construction adhesives are not recommended because of they cannot produce the degree of composite action required for structural uses. The selection of type, quality, and quantity of adhesives depend on the end use, manufacturing conditions and technology, equipment, dimensions, treatment and design requirements of SSP. It is important that only dried lumber is used. Walker (1975) noted that the correct moisture content minimizes the shrinkage and swelling of the product and the development of significant glue line stress can be prevented. The stresses might result in glueline failure and delamination. Especially, this is very important for the double skin construction. The stressed skin panel construction is divided into two categories by Stalnaker and Harris (1989). They are double (two-sided) and single skin (one-sided) construction. T-flange panels can be added to that classification. Single skin or T-flange panels are useful where access to space for piping and ductwork is necessary. The plywood skins resist bending moment and the wood stringers provide shear resistance (Anonymous, 1987). SSP has headers at its end, with blocking or bridging at various locations within the panels. Twosided panels do not require blocking, but one-sided panels require it for lateral support of the stringers in longer panels (Hoyle and Woeste, 1989). The blocking will support splice plates for joining skins, distribute concentrated loads, and aligning stringers. Blocking may be notched inside to provide ventilation. If panels are used in pitched roof with stringers perpendicular to the support rafters, blocking must be used to improve racking resistance. One-sided panels may require bridging for lateral stability (Faherty and Williamson, 1989). To be effective, the skins and

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stringers of panels must be continuous. Available sizes of plywood and lumber are limited. Both materials can be scarf jointed or lap spliced to obtain the required lengths (Hoyle and Woeste, 1989). Design of Stressed Skin Panel According to Wardle and Peek (1970) for an economy in the design of plywood SSP, there are number of considerations that should be taken by the designer. 1. The panel width should conform to commercially available widths of plywood sheets. 2. It is generally preferable for the face grain of the plywood to run parallel to the stringers. 3. Panel may have a top skin only, or both top and bottom skins. In the latter case, access holes may be required in the ceiling ply to enable adjacent units to be bolted together. 4. The plywood skins may be glued to the stringers with a structural adhesive or mechanically fastened with nails or staples. In both cases, the fastening must be designed to transmit to the horizontal shear resulting from integral structural action of the plywood and stringers. 5. The stringers must be continuous for the full length of the panel. Plywood skins can be butt jointed with plywood splice plates attached, or the plywood can be factory scarfed to the required length using joints of strength commensurate with the grade strength of the stringer. 6. For single skin panel, end headers and intermediate bridging are required to provide lateral support to the stringers to assist in transverse distribution of loads. It may not always be necessary to have intermediate bridging with double skin panels. The design of SSP has been documented in many publications. As an example, Anonymous (1971) published standard guidelines for engineering design of SSP with Douglas fir plywood. Lumber stringers may be of any species available in stress rated grades. Advantages of Stressed Skin Panel 1. It is simple to construct and can be assembled quickly in small shops with jigs and a few ordinary carpenter tools (Vick and Wittenberg, 1971). 2. It can be factory produced and used to reduce site work and speed up the assembly process (Wardle and Peek, 1970; Baird and Ozelton, 1984). It may be engineered cost effectively to suit particular applications (Anonymous, 1990). Any type of exterior or interior finish may be applied (Heyer and Blomquist, 1964). 3. With composite action, no slippage occurs between the skins and stringers when they are rigidly glued (Stalnaker and Harris, 1989). The whole panel assembly then behaves as a composite unit, with direct transfer of forces between skins and stringers; the skins taking most of the bending stress and the stringers shear stresses (Anonymous, 1990).

4. It is structurally efficient, resulting in less overall weight for the roof and floor system. This may be used to reduce material cost (Stalnaker and Harris, 1989). When it is combined with certain types of timber or built-up concrete systems, stressed skin roof systems are easily and rapidly constructed means of producing industrial and commercial buildings. The choice of materials can be optimized with regard to structural and functional requirements (Kliger and Pellicane, 1997). 5. It is suitable for incorporating into a multitude of modern designs (Perkins and Nelsin, 1962). It can be used with interesting and innovative architectural concepts, such as folded and curved geometries (Kliger, 1996). Also, variety of panelized structures is available to architects, smoothly surfaced if desired (Perkins and Nelsin, 1962). 6. The panel is sufficiently tight to be erected by hand or with simple lifting gear. In addition to that, sometimes it is possible to use components with prefinished skins with resulting additional savings in onsite labor (Baird and Ozelton, 1984). USE of STRESSED SKIN PANEL Amana and Booth (1967) reported that the stressed skin principles have been used in structures which form aircraft wings and fuselages, the outer shells of the bottom of ships, steel plate bridge decks, reinforced concrete and composite beam-slab floors and roofs. It is also noted that the field-glued floor system was basically a development of the SSP concept (Countryman and Rose, 1970). Countryman and Rose (1970), and Inonue et al., (1990) studied different properties of field-glued floor system, related to adhesives with an emphasis on especially elastomeric types. Stressed skin panel has been used in floor, wall, ceiling, roof system (Henry, 1971; Kliger, 1996; Kliger and Pellicane, 1997), prefabricated construction (Wardle and Peek, 1970), timber framed houses (Slaughter, 1993), agricultural buildings, and house construction. The stressed skin systems take the form of flat or curved panels and folded plate structures (Hoyle and Woeste, 1989). Examples of using SSP in the building industry are given in Figure 2. The study of earthquake and their resulting devastation is critical for Turkey since recent earthquake caused inestimable loss of life and extensive property damage. Wood products engineers have begun to research and develop earthquake resistant buildings. As a structural material, wood offer some key advantages over other materials in earthquake performance. Wood is strong yet lightweight, hence ground accelerations do not generate as much energy in wood buildings as in other buildings. As an added advantage, wood frame systems flex more than other materials, absorbing and dissipating energy (Anonymous, 2000). SSP can be used for the earthquake resistant building construction economically in Turkey.

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There are several documented cases where panel homes have survived hurricanes, tornadoes, and even the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, in good shape, while their

stick-framed immediate neighbors have suffered serious damages (Andrews, 1992).

Figure 2. Examples of using stressed skin panel in the building industry (Anonymous, 1996) CONCLUSIONS SSP may offer structural and cost advantages over other building materials. It can be fabricated easily in different shapes and sizes to suit architectural and structural aims. This is especially important for the prefabricated house industry. It is very adoptable and is suitable for many types of residential, commercial and industrial applications. Although, no building panel can be considered to be completely earthquake-proof, careful selection of skin and stringer materials and adhesive, efficient design and construction practices can reduce loss of life and property damage. SSP has high strength, good nail/screw bearing capabilities, large panel size, lightweight, and dimensional stability. Its properties are important for building economical structures resistant to high wind and seismic loading. SSP is recommended as a viable earthquake resistant building component in Turkey. REFERENCES Amana, E.J., Booth, L.G. 1967. Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Nailed and Glued Plywood Stressed Skin Components: Part 1. Theoretical study. Journal of Institute of Wood Science, 4(1): 43-69. Andrews, S., 1992. Building with Structural Foam Panels. The Journal of Light Construction, 189-196. Anonymous. 1971. Fir Plywood Stressed Skin Panels. Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia, Vancouver. Anonymous. 1987. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. USDA, Forest Products Laboratory. Agricultural Handook No: 72, Madison, Wisconsin, 466p. Anonymous. 1990. Destructive Testing of Stressed Skin Panels. Alberta Research Council, Forestry Department, Edmonton. Anonymous. 1993. TSB 124, Honeycomb Sandwich Construction. A Description of the Basic Design and Capabilities of Bonded Honeycomb Sandwich Construction. Hexcel Co., Arlington, Texas. Anonymous. 1996. Foam Laminates of Vermont Advertisement from Building Systems Magazine, November/December Anonymous. 2000. Earthquake Resistant Housing. A Wood-Frame Building Performance Fact Sheet. Forintek Canada Corporation, Vancouver. Bach, L., Cheng, R.J.J. 1996. Development of a Stressed Skin Panel System Using Corrugated Waferboard. International Wood Engineering Conference Proceedings, 4 : 175-181. Baird, J.A., Ozelton, E.C. 1984. Timber Designers Manual. Granada, London, 518p. Countryman, D.R., Rose, J.D. 1970. Field-Glued Plywood Floors. Forest Products Journal, 20(10): 17-27. Elbez, G., 1989. Expanding Resorcinol Cold Sets GapFilling Adhesives for Wood. In: Wood adhesives (Ed. A. Pizzi), Marcel Dec cer, NEW York City, NY, pp. 389-409. Faherty, K.F., Williamson, G.T. 1989. Wood Engineering Construction Handbook. McGraw Hill, NY, 912p. Gurfinkel, G. 1981. Wood Engineering (2nd Edition). Kendall / Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa, 552p. Henry, D.K. 1971. A Procedural Analysis for Examining Structural Efficiency and Comparing Relative Material Costs of Stressed Skin Panel (M Sc. Thesis). The Pennsylvania State University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Heyer, O.C., Blomquist, R.F. 1964. Stressed Skin Panel Performance After Twenty-Five Years of Service. USDA Forest Service, Research Paper, FPL-18, Madison, Wisconsin.

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Hoyle, R.J. Woeste, F.E. 1989. Wood Technology in the Design of Structures (5th Ed.). Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 370p. Inonue, A., Karasawa, H., Okura, A. 1990. Mechanical Properties and Durability of Elastomer-Based Adhesive for Field-Gluing Plywood Floors. Mokuzai Gakkaishi, 36(4): 314-322. Kliger, I.R. 1996. Flexural Behavior of Roof Units for Industrial Buildings. Proceedings of International Wood Engineering Conference, 4: 161-68. Kliger, I.R., Pellicane, P.J. 1996. Shear Properties of Components Used in Stressed Skin Panels. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 8(2): 77-82. Kliger, I.R., Pellicane, P.J. 1997. Stiffness Evaluation of Stressed Skin Panels of Mixed Construction. Journal of Structural Engineering, 133(8): 1046-1053. Merz, K., 1996. Large Size Composite Wood Panels Utilized for Load Bearing Modules in Timber Structures. Proceedings of International Wood Engineering Conference, 4: 169.

Perkins, C.E., Nelsin, S. 1962. Plywood Properties, Design, and Construction. The Douglas Fir Plywood Association, Tacoma, Washington. Slaughter, S.E. 1993. Builders as Sources of Construction Innovation. Journal of Construction Management, 119(3): 532-549. Stalnaker, J.J. Harris, C.E. 1989. Structural Design in Wood. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 448p. Vick, C.B. Wittenberg, D.C. 1971. Wind Resistance of Stressed Skin Curtain Wall Panels Bonded with Elastomeric Adhesives. USDA Forest Service, Research Paper SE-81. Asheville, North Carolina. Walker, J., 1975. Notes on Wood Science. University College of North Wales, Bangor, 135p. Wardle, T.M., Peek, J.D. 1970. Plywood Stressed Skin Panels: Geometric Properties and Selected Designs. Timber Research and Development Association, High Wycombe.