Performance of solid timber external walls under simulated bushfire attack

With the increasing threat of climate change there is a need to use renewable and green materials such as timber for house constructions. Current Australian standards for the construction of homes in bushfire prone areas do not consider the use of timber as a suitable material. However, our understanding of fire performance of solid timber wall constructions is still very limited. A new test standard has been drafted recently to set a special test protocol emulating Australian bushfire conditions. The objective of this research was to conduct a pilot study of experimental testing of a solid timber wall system utilising the basic principles of the Draft Standard AS 1530.8.1 to assess the wall performance under extreme bushfire attack. The experimental work showed that solid log wall assemblies are resistant to extreme bushfire threat and timber can be a suitable material for building in bushfire prone areas if sufficiently thick and well sealed.