BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY

City of Malolos, Bulacan

College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

STRUCTURAL DESIGN I - TIMBER STRUCTURES

Definition of Wood

Wood the hard fibrous material that forms the main substance of the trunk or branches of a
tree or shrub, used for fuel or timber. Wood has been used for thousands of years for fuel, as a
construction material, for making tools and weapons, furniture and paper.
In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plant to grow larger or to stand
up by themselves. Wood is an important natural resource, one of the few that are renewable. It is
prevalent in our everyday lives and the economy, in wood-frame houses and furniture; newspaper,
books and magazines; bridges and railroad tiles; fence, post and utility poles; fuelwood; textile fabrics;
and organic chemicals. Wood and wood products are also a store for carbon, thus, helping to minimize
carbon dioxide in atmosphere.

Pros and cons

Probably the most popular construction material for houses, wood has many advantages. It is
relatively lightweight and unlike steel, easy to cut. It's also easy to add decorative elements to wood
constructions to increase curb appeal.
The disadvantages to wood construction include vulnerability to water damage, fire, decay, and
termites. When purchasing a wood construction home, it's very important to check the integrity of
support beams, etc. Wood is also a less environmentally sustainable choice than green building
materials such as composite lumber or recycled steel.
The term "timber" is used to refer to the wood at any stage after the tree has been fall. This can
include the raw material, also known as rough timber or the processed material.

Wood Cells
The wood consists of rows of tube like cells, or fibers, bonded together along their outer surfaces
with lignin a glue-like substance.
In softwood trees, such as pine, wood is composed of long (3 to 5 millimeters) tracheid cells that
allow movement of the sap. In contrast, hardwoods, such as oak, have two kinds of wood cells: wood
fibers and vessel elements.

Two Kinds of Wood Cell (HARDWOOD CELLS)

1. Wood fiber cells are smaller in length (0.7 to 3 millimeters) and diameter than softwood tracheid
cells and do not participate in the living tree's fluid transport.
2. The vessel elements, acting as the conduits for movement of the sap, come in various lengths
within a tree and among species.

Darker wood, called heartwood, is at the center of the tree where xylem cells eventually enter a state
of perpetual dormancy and become dead parts of a living tree system (much akin to human hair) and

Latewood (summerwood), the higher density wood cells that form the growth rings, are prized by some
guitar makers as hard, stiff soundboard "reeds."
Earlywood (springwood) cells, low density cells, form early in the year

Hardwood and Softwood

Many believe that hardwood is a harder and denser material than softwood, but this is not necessarily
the case. They are both used for a range of structural and decorative projects.

HARDWOOD SOFTWOOD
DEFINITION Broad leaves, many vessel Needle, cone and sharp leaves,
(pores) as water transport in tree content medullary ray for water
structure. transport and sap.
GROWTH RATE 100% Slower 100% Faster
USES High quality furniture and Normally used for general
construction material cabinets, construction, building
paneling and specialty items. component and structural
purposes.
COST Expensive compare to softwood. Low cost compare to hardwood.
EXAMPLES Example of hardwood trees Example of softwood trees
includes maple, oak, walnut, includes pine, redwood, larch,
alder, balsa, beech, hickory, and cedar, spruce, and yew.
teak.
DENSITY High density in nature. Low density in nature.
FIRE RESISTANCE High fire resistance. Low fire resistance.

Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup,
and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and
workable softwoods.

Earlywood and Latewood

Earlywood is porous, and made up of thin walled cells, compared
to latewood, which is influenced by colder temperatures and drier
conditions. As a result, latewood is made of densely-layered, strong,
thick-walled cells. Both earlywood and latewood serve a purpose for
the tree. It’s the latewood that gives wood the majority of its strength,
and the earlywood keeps the tree growing by delivering water and
nutrients. Here is the difference between the earlywood and latewood:

Earlywood (Spring Wood) Latewood (Autumn Wood)

1. Formed during spring season (early in the year) 1. Formed during winter season (later in the year)
2. Xylem tissues: wider vessels 2. Xylem tissues: narrow vessels
3. Less dense 3. More dense
4. Broad zone of wood 4. Narrow zone of wood
5. Cambium is very active 5. Cambium is less active
6. Not as strong as latewood 6. Stronger than earlywood due to larger volume
7. Lighter in colour of wall materials
7. Darker in colour
 PITH

MEDULLARY RAYS
Annual Rings
CAMBIUM
- Also called growth rings.
- Annual rings are made each your when a
new layer of wood is added to the trunk
and branches of the tree

ANNUAL RINGS
Medullary Rays
- It is also known as pith or pith rays.
- It is a group of wood cells radiating from
the pith through the truewood and
sapwood zones of the tree. Food materials are conducted horizontally in the trunk of the tree
via the medullary rays which also acts as food storage areas.

Cambium
The cambium layer is the layer of thin cells, invisible to the naked eye positioned inside the live
bark. This layer of cells facilitates all growth in the thickness of the trunk. The cambium grows wood cells
on the inside and live barks cells on the outside.
 Cork cambium, a tissue found in many vascular plants as part of the periderm.
 Unifacial cambium, which ultimately produces cells to the interior of its cylinder.
 Vascular cambium, a lateral meristem in the vascular tissue of plants.

Pores
- Also known as vessels.
- It is the small circular holes visible on a cross-section of woods. These
vessels serve as the tree’s plumbing, transporting sap throughout the
tree. The size and distribution of these pores helps determine the type of
wood.It appears in hardwoods and do not appear in softwoods.

Pore Arrangement
Ring-porous
Pores occur mainly in the earlywood, causing an abrupt transition to latewood which is
very distinct. Latewood pores are more difficult to see. (oak, ash)

Semi-ring-porous
The pore transition from large to small diameter within a growth ring is gradual. (black
walnut, hickory)
Diffuse-porous
The pores are uniform in size across the entire growth ring. (poplar, maple), often with
no clear earlywood/latewood pore arrangement.

Pore Size
Technically, wood pore diameters are measured in micrometers, but the scope and
scale of such minute scientific measurements can be hard to grasp. Without a means to actually
measure the pore diameters (such as with a microscope outfitted with a micrometer eyepiece),
knowing the actual measurements isn’t terribly useful. Instead, it’s more helpful to simply
gauge the pore sizes in comparative terms, (i.e., the pores are relatively small, or they are
relatively large).
Size Micrometers (µm)
Small < 50
Medium 50-100
Large 100-200
Very Large > 200

Pore Frequency
Pore frequency is generally only measured on diffuse-porous woods; if noted, it’s indicated in
comparative terms, such as few, or numerous, rather than by precise microscopic terms such as
quantity per square millimeter. In some instances, considering the pore frequency can prove to
be an important distinguishing factor in identification.
Frequency Vessels/mm2
Very Few <5
Few 5-20
Moderately Numerous 20-40
Numerous 40-100
Very Numerous > 100

MOISTURE CONTENT

The use of impermeable material such as some types of insulation and moisture barriers must
be carefully considered when designing and constructing wood building systems. One of the most
important factors affecting the performance and properties of wood is its moisture content. The amount
of water present in wood can affect its weight, strength, workability, susceptibility to biological attack
and dimensional stability in a particular end use.

The amount of water contained in a piece of timber is known as its ‘moisture content’ (mc),
expressed as a percentage of the oven dry weight of the wood:
 MC% = Weight of water x 100
Weight of dry wood

Thus a piece of wet timber whose weight is half dry wood and half water has a moisture content of
100%. Sometimes the weight of the water in a piece of wood exceeds the weight of the dry wood, in
which case the moisture content exceeds 100%.

 Measuring Moisture Content

Control of wood moisture content, during processing and in use, is vital in order to avoid the
development of moisture-related defects. There are two commonly used methods of measuring
moisture content in wood – the oven dry method and the use of electrical moisture meters.

o Oven dry method - This method has the advantage of providing an accurate
assessment of the average moisture content of the samples tested but it is a destructive
and time consuming test that does not identify moisture gradients within the sample
piece. For these reasons its day-to-day use is largely confined to companies undertaking
timber drying, where it is used for monitoring moisture content during the drying
process, and to specialist applications where very accurate assessment of moisture
content is necessary.
o Moisture meters - Moisture meters are a quicker and more flexible method for
measuring moisture content. Their main advantage is that they give instant readings
that, although not necessarily highly accurate, can be repeated many times to give an
overall picture of the moisture content in a piece/stack of timber. Most moisture meters
are portable and/or handheld, so enabling them to be used to measure the moisture
content of timber and timber products in a wide variety of situations and end uses.

 What Is Equilibrium Moisture Content?

As long as the fiber saturation point is not reached, the relative humidity “h” and
temperature “T” of the atmosphere affects the moisture content of wood considerably. The
moisture content at which wood neither gains nor loses moisture is known as the equilibrium
moisture content or “EMC”. The equilibrium is dynamic in nature because of the changing
relative humidity and temperature.
When a piece of wood is placed in a certain environment, over a period of time it tries
to achieve equilibrium with the environment. The moisture content changes to adjust to the
relative humidity and temperature of the surroundings. After a certain period of time, the
moisture content stops changing. This moisture level is termed as the equilibrium moisture
content “EMC”. It stays as it is as long as the relative humidity and temperature of the
surroundings are not changed.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

 Reasons for Drying Timber

It is usually necessary to dry wood before it is used or processed, unless it is going to be in

water or in a very wet environment where its moisture content would remain above fsp. The
main reasons for drying timber are to:

o avoid decay
 o avoid shrinkage in service.

Further reasons for drying include:

o save weight during transportation

o facilitate machining
o enable strong glue joints to be made
o allow preservatives to penetrate

 Typical Moisture Contents

15-20% MC External joinery, windows, structural timber

10-15% MC Internal joinery, furniture

8-10% MC Internal joinery in rooms which are continuously heated

REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_moisture_content
http://www.rlcengineering.com/wmc.htm
https://www.wagnermeters.com
https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Infographic-of-the-Parts-of-a-Tree-Trunk-and-How-it-Grows-
Posters_i14372824_.html
https://www.onelessthing.net/products/tree-trunk-anatomy-poster
https://www.quora.com/Is-medullary-ray-and-vascular-cambium-same
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311654801_Cell_and_Molecular_Biology_of_Wood_Formati
on
https://www.cabi.org
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/ch02.pdf
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.diffen.com/difference/Hardwo
od_vs_Softwood&ved=2ahUKEwiv75fM76TgAhXGbSsKHWFuB7EQFjABegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw0wuYNK
JglSVas4WCFlGlyv