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Whats in this presentation Basic truss requirements Structural loading of truss members Examples of bending, tension and compression Roof load width of trusses Specific loads - dead, live and wind loads Combinations of loads Truss patterns of tension and compression (to resist loads) Putting the principles into practise A worked example - calculating loads in truss members Finalising the truss design
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Web Gap Load bearing wall
Tension
Note: Specific load capacities of members depend on the timber grade and potentially other design issues as well. The above example is for demonstration only
Note: Specific load capacities of members depend on the timber grade and potentially other design issues as well. The above example is for demonstration only
Note: Specific load capacities of members depend on the timber grade and potentially other design issues as well. The above example is for demonstration only
Gravity Dead Loads including roof and ceiling materials these are felt by the structure all of the time Gravity Live Loads including people working on the roof and stuff stacked on it these are only felt some of the time by the structure Wind loads including downward pressure or suction that lifts upwards these are only felt some of the time but downward pressure adds to the gravity loads above, while uplift works in the opposite directions
Live loads
(people,)
Did you know weight force is sometimes expressed as kilonewtons - a term commonly used by structural engineers. A kilonewton is the force generated by a mass of about 102kg. Think of a kilonewton as the weight force of a large person.
Wind loads
Wind loads push against the roof but can also cause uplift and suction
The amount of wind load which acts on the roof depends on several things - the most important being the speed of the wind
Suction
Internal
Wind Suction
As the wind speed increases so does wind load this load is spread over the area of the building exposed to the wind
For different areas in Australia, the wind load standard, AS1170.2, provides basic wind speeds to calculate loads on buildings Roofs in protected areas will be subject to less wind load than those on exposed sites To calculate the wind load that the roof is likely to feel, the basic speeds are adjusted for factors such as height, shielding and terrain type AS 4055 provides a simplified version of wind speeds (compared to AS1170.2). It is especially for residential buildings
When the wind passes over a roof it can cause a suction. When it gains access to the interior it can cause an uplift.
The trusses must be strong enough to resist the load developed by suctions and uplift. They must be attached adequately to the rest of the structure so the whole roof is not sucked off.
Suction (uplift)
Wind
Internal pressure
Suction
Combinations of loads
More than one type of load can be acting on a truss at the same time. The designer must check that the truss is strong enough to resist the worst combination of loads possible. This may be a combination of gravity dead loads plus gravity live load, plus wind loads all acting downwards. In other instances wind may be acting upwards (where suction and uplift occur), therefore acting in the opposite direction to gravity dead and live loads. In high wind areas, wind uplift can easily exceed downward gravity loads. For resisting uplift, the heavy dead load from a tiled roof is useful. Tip: Did you know that because dead load is there all the time, any combination of loads the truss can feel, must include dead load.
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Support
Bottom Chord
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Bottom Chord
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An Example
Say we want to check the member sizes of a type A truss (as shown previously) to span 8 metres and spaced at 600mm apart Assume that 70x35 softwood will be used as this is an economical and readily available size. From earlier examples, we also know that this size can take 2000kgs in tension and 540kgs in compression (for a straight length 1m long) The designer would use structural analysis software to work out forces felt in the truss members, based on a scenario just before the truss would collapse. Safety factors are also incorporated in the loads. Note: Specific load capacities of members depend on the timber grade and potentially other design issues as well. The above example is for demonstration only
For gravity dead loads (using a tiled roof) and live loads, the maximum compression including safety factors, works out to be 510Kgs. Compression members usually dominate design requirements. The 510kgs is within the capacity of the 70x35 timber as long as it is laterally restrained at no more 1m intervals A similar calculation would check uplift from wind loads