STEEL AND TIMBER STRUCTURES I.

Design of bearing members

DESIGN OF TIMBER MEMBERS

13 Global stability of bearing timber members

Mission of the chapter

Acquaint with the determination of the resistance and assessment of timber elements, considering
the possibility of buckling at compressive and bending strain.

Objectives of the chapter

After studying the chapter, you should know:
What is the flexural buckling at compressive strain, how to consider its effect.
What is the lateral-torsional buckling at bending strain, how to consider its effect.
Which coefficients enter into the calculation for a given type of loading, what they reflect and
how to determine their values.
What is the essence of relative slenderness of timber elements, by what is influenced and
how to calculate for a given type of loading.

The essence of timber members buckling is not very different from its meaning for steel
members (see Chapter 8). It is always about the resistance reduction due to the lateral buckling and
creation of additional stress. This buckling usually occurs due to the slenderness, various
imperfections and deficiencies that a timber member contains naturally or as a result of its production
process. The critical strains are doing so achieved, before reaching the design strengths of the
material, therefore these strengths must be reduced by appropriate coefficients σd ≤ fd. The
compressive stress may acts in the whole cross-section, then it goes about flexural buckling of
compressed timber members. At the bending strain, only compressed part of the member is subjected
to lateral buckling, in this case it goes about lateral-torsional buckling of timber beams.

13.1 Flexural buckling of compressed timber members

Buckling of slender centrically compressed members is manifested by its deformation and
losing the bearing capacity before the resistance exhaustion and reaching the material strength
throughout its cross-section. The deformation of timber member is generally associated with its side
buckling in the direction of smallest stiffness.

13.1.1 Slenderness influence on the flexural buckling

Calculation of buckling resistance needs to find the slenderness λ in the relevant buckling
direction. The slenderness is defined as a ratio of buckling (critical) length Lcr and radius of gyration i.
The critical length is given by the theoretical member's length L and boundary supporting conditions
(buckling shapes). Mostly, the timber member is both sides hinged supported, then its critical length is
equal to its theoretical length, Lcr = L.

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STEEL AND TIMBER STRUCTURES I.
Design of bearing members

DESIGN OF TIMBER MEMBERS

Because the cross-sectional dimension of the member in the directions Y and Z may be
different, the radius of gyration to referred axes may be different, therefore the member's slenderness
to various axes may be also different:

Lcr , y Lcr , z
λy = , λz = 13.1
iy iz

Further needed slenderness is called relative slenderness λrel, which expresses the relation
between member's slenderness λ and its material properties, [17]. Analogically, the relative
slenderness λrel can be different to different axes. If λrel ≤ 0,3 the buckling will not be considered.

λ fc,0,k
λrel = 13.2
π E0,05

Where E0,05 is a 5 percent fractile of the elastic modulus in the fibers direction.

13.1.2 Calculation of flexural buckling factor

By introducing the material imperfection factor βc and coefficient k, relationship for determining
the buckling factor kc, needed to calculate the design buckling resistance in compression can be
obtained, [17]. Coefficients k and kc can be also different to different axes.

1
kc = 13.3
k + k 2 − λrel
2

k = 0,5[1 + β c (λrel − 0,3) + λrel

2
] 13.4

Imperfection factor βc is considered as 0,2 for solid wood, and as 0,1 for glued laminated wood and
veneer wood.

13.1.3 Assessment of compressed timber members

The design stress, caused by compressive force σc,0,d should not exceed the design
compressive strength of the used material fc,0,d, reduced by flexural buckling factor for a particular
buckling direction kc,y or kc,z, [17]:

σ c,0,d ≤ k c fc,0,d 13.5

In the case of simultaneous action of flexural buckling and bending without lateral-torsional
buckling, the following conditions must be satisfied, [17]:

σ c,0,d σ m, y,d σ m,z,d

+ + km ≤1 13.6
k c, y fc,0,d fm, y,d fm, z,d

σ c,0,d σ m, y,d σ m,z,d

+ km + ≤1 13.7
k c,z fc,0,d fm, y,d fm, z,d

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