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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.
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
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.
Permissible stresses
Permissible stresses are obtained from large number of tests. They are given in specifications
(EBCS 5).
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.
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
N
fc Fc , // orFc ,
A
- Long column
wN
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.
- Shear stresses:
VQ
fv Fs , //
It
- 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.