Chapter

ine: Timber Structures

Chapter Nine: Timber Structures

9.1 Introduction

Timber is an organic material produced from naturally growing trees. There

are about 30,000 different species of trees and of these close to 100 different
species are exploited as a proper source of timber in Ethiopia.

As it was introduced in the first chapter, structures whose major constituent

components are timber are known as timber structures.

Timbers are used both in structural and non-structural members in various civil
engineering applications such as buildings of various types, bridges, power
transmission and communication towers, among others.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Timber

a) Advantages
- Timber is available in many countries
- Easy to handle and change in to various forms
- It has nearly same properties in compression, tension, and flexure
and has high elasticity
- There is a good relation between its bearing capacity and own
weight
- Good resistant against chemicals
- Nearly no length change in response to temperature variation
- Nearly no electric conductivity

b) Disadvantages
- Organic in nature which affects its quality
- No apparent control over its quality ( other materials are man made
and therefore same form of quality control at their production)
- Strength is affected by moisture
- Timber changes its volume or/and shape depending on its moisture
content
- It is inflammable
- Many years has elapsed for a tree to be exploited as timber

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 Chapter ine: Timber Structures

9.2 Timber Properties

Grain Nature: Grains are not always parallel to the longitudinal direction of
the timber pieces. Thus the angle between the grain and the direction of the
application of the load influences the strength on a much wider scale.

Density and Moisture Content: Generally, Strength increases with density and
decreases with rising moisture content and hence correction to permissible
stress is required
.
Temperature: Its effect on strength is not considered in the design of timber
structures.

Defects: Knots should be considered in the design of timber as they affect the
capacity.

Duration of loading: Duration of loading is an important factor in the design of

timber structures. Wooden beams loaded continuously for a longer period of
time fail at a load to of the load required to cause failure in a couple of
minutes.

Main loading categories in duration terms are:

- Short term load ( minutes to hours, such as wind or earthquake)
- Medium term load ( hours to months, such as live loads)
- Long term Loads ( in years, such as dead loads)

Permissible stresses

Permissible stresses are obtained from large number of tests. They are given in
specifications (EBCS 5).

Corrections to permissible stresses

a) According to moisture content

- Dry condition ( indoor structures): +20%
- Moist condition (out door strictures): 0%
- Wet condition ( under water structures): -20%

b) According to loading duration

- Short term loads ( wind): +20%
- Medium term loads ( Live): 0%
- Long term loads: ( dead) -20%
.

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 Chapter ine: Timber Structures

c) Load correction factors

- Short term ( Dead + imposed + wind): 0.8
- Medium term (dead + temporary imposed): 1.0
- Long term ( Dead + permanent imposed): 1.25

9.3 Design of Members

The various design concepts and detailing procedures for timber are similar to
those involved in steel structures and, thus, similar computational and
detailing operations are followed for their planning.

Tension Members

Tension members are structural members that carry pure tension loads. The
bottom chords of roof and bridge trusses are c1assic examples of tension
members.

The process of designing such structural members is reduced to selecting a

section with sufficient cross-sectional area to carry the design load without
exceeding the allowable tensile stress as stipulated in relevant codes of
practice and proportioning connections so that all relevant design
specifications are met with regard to arrangement as well as stress limitations.

Generally, the following ASD equation should be satisfied:

T
f t= Ft , //
An
where: T = tensile force
An = net cross sectional area
Ft,// = allowable tensile stress parallel to the grain

Note: For tension members having knots, the net area should be considered in
design. Tensile forces can apply only parallel to the grain.

Compression Members

Timbers may be used in the construction of compression members such as

columns, posts, struts or stanchions, etc.

Generally, in the design of compression members, the following ASD

equations should be satisfied:

- Short Column

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 Chapter ine: Timber Structures

fc = Fc , // orFc ,
A
- Long column
w
fc = Fc , // orFc ,
A

where: N = compressive force

A = cross sectional area
Ft,// = allowable compressive stress parallel or
perpendicular to the grain

Note: No need of considering reduction due to holes if the holes are filled with
a material at least having the same strength as that of the main element.

Flexural Members

Flexural members are structural elements that span between or across

supports carry principally lateral loads which are resisted by flexural bending
and shear. Hence, flexural members must be checked for extreme fibre
flexural stresses, shear stresses and deflection.

Generally the following ASD equations should be satisfied.

- Extreme fibre Flexural stress:

Mc
fb = Fb , //
I
where: M = bending moment
I= moment of inertia of the cross section
c = distance of bottom or top extreme fibres from neutral
axis.
Fb,// = allowable bending stress parallel to the grain

- Shear stresses:
VQ
fv = Fs , //
It
where: V = shear force
I= moment of inertia of the cross section
Q = first moment about the neutral axis of the part of the
cross sectional area lying further from the neutral axis than
the point where the shear stresses are being calculated
t= width of the member where the stresses are being
calculated

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 Chapter ine: Timber Structures

Fs, //= allowable shear stress parallel to the grain

For rectangular cross sections:

3V
fv = Fs , //
2bd
where: b= width of the member
d= depth of the member

- Deflection:
l
o General purpose beams:
360
l
o Highway bridges:
200
l l
o Stringer in railroad bridges: to
200 300

Combined Members

Nearly all members in a structure are subjected to both bending moment and
axial force-either tension or compression.

Generally the following ASD equations should be satisfied:

a) Members designed to resist bi-directional bending moments:

M My
fb = x + Fb , //
Wx Wy
R = x2 + y2
b) Members designed to resist tension plus bending:
ft , // f b, //
+ 1 .0
Ft , // Fb, //
c) . Members designed to resist compression plus bending:
f c , // f b, //
+ 1 .0
Fc , // Fb , //

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