Design of timber joists

Task:

Determine the size of timber joists for the first floor of a typical dwelling house. The

joists are spaced at 400 centres.

Assume the design load to be 2.25 kN/m2.

Modulus of elasticity of timber = 10 700 N/mm2

Strength of grade C24 timber = 7.5 N/mm2 (in bending)

Solution:

The sectional and the plan views are shown in Figure App8.1. The spacing between the

joists is 400 mm or 0.4 m. Assume the size of the joists to be 50 × 200 mm for

calculating the dead load of the joists. Every 1 m length of a typical joist supports the

loading from an area of 0.4 m × 1.0 m, shown as the hatched area in Figure App8.1b.

Joists

18 mm thick floor boards

Timber joist
50 x 200 mm

12 mm thick
plasterboard
a)

0.4 m x 1.0 m
section

b)
Figure App8.1 Timber floor
udl per metre length of a joist = 0.4 × 1.0 × 2.25 kN/m2

= 0.9 kN

Figure App8.2 shows how this udl acts on the joist.

0.9 kN/m (udl)

A C B
4m
R 1 = 1.8 kN R 2 = 1.8 kN

Figure App8.2

Maximum Bending moment occurs at the middle of the joist, i.e. point C.

w l2 0.9  4.0 2
B.M. at C = = = 1.8 kN-m or 1.8 × 1000 × 1000 N-mm
8 8

M = f Z, where M is the maximum B.M., f is the strength of timber in bending

and z is the section modulus.

f bd2 bd2
M=fz= where =z (b is the width and d is the depth of joists)
6 6

Let us assume the width of the joist to be 50 mm

7.5  50  d 2
1.8 × 1000 × 1000 = (f = 7.5 N/mm2, b = 50 mm)
6

d2 = 28 800 or d = 169.7 mm

Use 50 × 200 mm joists at 400 c/c

Check for deflection: Maximum allowable deflection = 4000 ÷ 360 = 11.1 mm

 5 w l4
Actual deflection =
384 E I

b d3 50  200 3
Second moment of area, I = = = 3.33 × 107 mm4
12 12

5  0.9  4000 4
Actual deflection =
384 10 700  3.3310 7

= 8.4 mm < 11.1 mm, therefore Safe.