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1.1 Introduction
Timber is used as one of the construction material in areas where it is easily available and cheap.
Timber can also be used for temporary structures, formwork and scaffolding.
Timber is an organic material generally used in its natural state but it should be properly seasoned
before use. Of the many factors that determine the strength of timber, slope of grains, specific
gravity, moisture content and the natural characteristics of timber (like defects due to knots,
checks & shakes) may have an effect on the strength of timber. The life of timber structure is long
if it is maintained either dry or wet continuously.
Advantages of Timber
- Good resistance against chemicals, such as acid and salts.
- Easy to handle, even with simple tools.
- Strong material compared to its own weight (it has a low unit weight).
- Nearly no change in length due to temperature.
- Nearly it is thermal and electrical insulating material.
- It has a good ability to dampen vibration.
- Being a fibrous material, it is less sensitive to repeated loads (fatigue).
Disadvantages of Timber
- Its strength decrease by moisture.
- Change its volume or/and shape depending on its water content.
- It is inflammable.
- It is easily attacked by fungi, insects etc.
- It takes a lot of time until a tree can be used as timber.
The permissible stresses given in the above table are used for moist out door structures and under
medium term loading. For other moisture condition and duration of loading, corrections are to be
made as given below. Modulus of elasticity of timber is not affected by moisture conditions of
timber.
a) Correction for moisture content
The permissible column loads used for design according to American Forest and Paper
Association (AFPA) shall be calculated as follows:
a) For short columns
P
fc Fc ||
A
b) For intermediate columns
p 1 lu b
4
fc Fc ||. 1
A 3 kc
c) For long columns
P 0.3Etimber
fc
A lu b 2
2
P 2 Fc || kc
or fc .
A 3 lu b
Note: No need of reducing cross sectional area of compression member if holes are filled by a
material which has at least the same strength as the timber column.
When circular section is used by timber beam, allowable bending stress is increased by form
factor of 1.18 as
Fb || | 1.18 * Fb ||
When notches are located at or near to the middle of the span, the net depth (d-d 2) should be used
in determining the bending strength of the beam where d2 is depth of notch.
3. Structural Connections
Connections used in timber structures are:
3.1 Bolted Connection: -Bolts along with timber-connectors are commonly used fasteners
in structural connections. The allowable load per bolt is less than that of timber-connector
therefore, more bolts are required.
Bolted connection may be made using gusset- or splice-plate made of timber. The total combined
thickness of gusset- or splice-plate on either side of joint shall not be less than 1.5 times the
thickness of the main member.
Size of bolts varies from 10mm to 40mm, the most commonly being 12mm, 16mm, 18mm
20mm, 22mm and 25mm. Greater efficiency is obtained using larger bolt than small ones. Bolt
holes are drilled 1.5mm larger than diameter of bolt.
Bolts transmit the joint load by contact bearing pressure between bolt & timber member, bolt
shear & bending of bolt. To spread large bolt force on the surface of softer timber member,
washers must be used at both ends of the bolt.
i) Design of Joint for Bearing Stress: -For safe design of bolted joint, bearing pressure
developed between the shank of bolt and timber member is limited to the allowable bearing
pressure of timber.
P
i.e fp Fp
l . db
-Allowable bearing pressure between bolt and timber member if the direction of pressure parallel
to the grain of timber is given by:
Fp k1 . Fc ||
where k1 –constant depends on l d b ratio as given in table below.
l --length of bolt in the member
db –diameter of bolt.
1
Table 3: Constant k
l db ≤3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
k1 1.0 0.97 0.88 0.76 0.65 0.57 0.51 0.46 0.41 0.38 0.34 0.30
-Allowable bearing pressure between bolt and timber member if the direction of pressure
perpendicular to the grain of timber is given by:
Fp k2 . k3 . Fc
where k2 --constant depends of l d b ratio as given in table below.
k3 –constant depends on diameter of bolt as given in table below.
Table 4: Constant k2
l db ≤ 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
k2 1.0 0.98 0.86 0.76 0.68 0.61 0.55
ii) Design of Joint for Shearing Stress of bolt: -For safe design of bolted joint,
Joint-load per bolt due to shearing of bolt is limited to the allowable bolt load for shearing of bolt
as given below.
a) For one sheared cross-section per bolt
Allowable bolt load per bolt is taken as the smallest value of the following equation:
3.5t1 . db (1 0.6 sin 1 )
3.5t . d (1 0.6 sin )
2 b 2
Fbp ( N ) 2
16db (1 0.25 sin 1 )
16d 2 (1 0.25 sin )
b 2
b) For two sheared cross-section per bolt
Allowable bolt load per bolt is taken as the smallest value of the following:
14t1 . db (1 0.6 sin 1 )
7t . d (1 0.6 sin )
2 b 2
Fbp ( N ) 2
32db (1 0.25sin 1 )
32d 2 (1 0.25sin )
b 2
where d—diameter of bolts in mm.
1 & 2 are angle between the direction of load and the direction of grain of timber in
member 1 and member 2.
t ≥ 0.3db
db + 1mm
db + 1mm
t ≥ 0.3db
3db – 3.4db ≥ 3.5db
7db ≥100mm C
7db 7db 7db
2.5db
2.5db 4db 2.5db
4db 2.5db
T T
2.5db 7db
T
4db
C
2.5db 4db 2.5db 2.5db
4db 4db
2.5db
7db 2.5db
3.2 Nailed Connection: -Nailed connections are suitable for light timber structures. They
can safely transmit joint load of 35kN. In hard wood, nailed joints can transmit even up to 50kN.
But in hard woods, pre-boring have to be done, the pre-bore should not exceed 4/5 th of the
diameter on nail shank.
Nailed connection may be made using gusset-or splice-plate made of timber. The total combined
thickness of gusset- or splice-plate on either side of joint shall not be less than 1.5 times the
thickness of the main member.
Commonly used nails have length of 2 to 25cm and, diameters of shank of nail are 10mm, 8mm,
6.3mm, 5.6mm, 5mm, 4.5mm, 4mm, 3.55mm, 3.15mm, 2.8mm, 2.24mm, 2mm, 1.8mm, 1.6mm,
1.4mm & 1.24mm. Diameter of head of nail is approximately 2 times diameter of shank of nail.