Abstract: Timber-concrete composite (TCC) is a well-known construction method for more than 100 years. The main applications of TCC are floor slabs, either for the construction of TCC slabs in new buildings, or in the context of strengthening of existing timber beam ceilings. Typically, TCC slabs consist of timber beams and a concrete slab, both connected by special shear elements. With the usually as shear connectors applied metallic fasteners, only a flexible bond between the timber beams and the concrete slab can be achieved. Nevertheless, the load-bearing behaviour of TCC slabs is characterized by high bending stiffness and ultimate load. A huge advantage of TCC slabs in contrast to timber beam ceilings are the essentially improved fire resistance and the reduced vibration sensitivity.

Within the last years, the application of TCC slabs for construction of new buildings has strongly increased. The main reason is the lower environmental impact of TCC slabs in comparison to ordinary reinforced concrete slabs of comparable load-bearing capacity. Furthermore, TCC is beneficial in the context of heritage protection because the bottom side of timber beam ceilings may remain unchanged when strengthened with TCC method.

Biography: Klaus Holschemacher studied Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Leipzig (TH Leipzig) and has got PhD degree from this university in 1992. Since 1996 he is Professor for Structural Concrete at the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig). He is the founding director of the Structural Concrete Institute (IfB) and the head of this institution until now. Holschemacher has successfully applied for research funds with a total amount of more than 12 million €. His main research interests are carbon and textile reinforced concrete, fibre reinforced concrete, hybrid structures, and bond of reinforcement in cementitious materials.

Holschemacher is author, respectively co-author, of more than 400 research papers. He is member of numerous scientific organizations, e.g. fib, ACI, ASCE. Since 2018, he is board member of the German Carbon Concrete Composite e.V. Besides his activities in research, he is working as consulting engineer and as publicly appointed and sworn expert.