CE 18 - TIMBER DESIGN

Prelim/ Midterm Take Home Examination

Part I: Discussion
1. Give 5 disadvantages and 5 advantages of wood as a construction material.
2. Give and discuss at least 5 factors affecting the strength of wood.
3. What is meant by anisotropic property of wood? Explain how this affects the strength of wood.
4. Give and describe five defects on wood.

Part II: Calculation

1. A masonry terrace of 75 mm concrete surface with 25 mm cement tiles on 75 mm x 200 mm lumber
spaced at 300 mm on centers acting as simple beam with effective span of 3.6 m. Weight of wood is 7.5
kN/m3 and masonry to be 24 kN/m3. Ew= 13800 MPa. The allowable stresses are 14 MPa for bending, 0.80
Mpa for shear parallel to the grain and deflection is 1/360 of span.
a. Which of the following gives the uniform load it could support if bending stress controls. (Ans: 3.49
kN/m)
b. Which of the following gives the uniform load it could support if shear controls. (Ans: 3.61 kN/m)
c. Which of the following gives the uniform load it could support if deflection controls. (Ans: 2.32 kN/m)

2. Wooden joists are used to support a floor load of 6.95 kPa exclusive of its own weight. The joists will
have an effective span of 4.25 m and be placed at 0.40 m on centers. Weight of wood is 7.5 kN/m3.
a. Design the wooden joists so as not to exceed the allowable bending stress of 10.35 MPa.
b. Design the wooden joists so as not to exceed the allowable shearing stress of 0.85 MPa.
c. Design the wooden joists so as not to exceed the allowable deflection of 10 mm. Es=12135 MPa.

3. A wooden joist in a loading platform is 4 m. It has simple support at one end and at a point 1 m from
the other end. The supports are 3 m apart and the joists overhangs 1 m. The joist carry a load of 1200
N/m including its own weight.
a. Design the wooden joist so as not to exceed the allowable bending stress of 13.2 MPa. (Ans: 50 mm x
100 mm)
b. Design the wooden joist so as not to exceed the allowable shear stress of 0.65 MPa. (Ans: 50 mm x
100 mm)
c. Design the wooden joist so as not to exceed the allowable deflection of 20 mm. Assume E = 12300.
(Hint: Determine first the location where the maximum deflection occurs and solve for the value of
maximum deflection. Recall your lessons in determining the deflection of determinate beams from
Structural Theory subject) (Ans: 50 mm x 100 mm)

Part III: Designing

A wooden floor system is supported on four posts and measures 4.2 m x 3 m from center to center of
posts. It carries a live load of 4 kPa. Flooring is 25 mm x 400 mm in nominal dimensions. Joists are
supported by girders and spaced at 700 mm on centers along the 4.2 m side of the floor system. The
weight of wood is 6.8 kN/m3. Deflection I limited to 1/240 of the span of a member. The wood to be used
is Yakal @ 80% stress grade with the following design parameters: Bending and tension parallel to grain
= 24.5 MPa; Compression parallel to grain = 15.8 MPa; Compression perpendicular to grain = 6.27 MPa;
Shear parallel to grain = 2.49 MPa and E= 9.78 x 103 MPa.

Assuming the flooring and the joists to be simply supported and all adjustment factors for design stresses
are equal to 1.0, except for size and slenderness factors, investigate whether the spacing of the joists is
adequate. If adequate, design the floor joists using its given spacing. If not adequate, redesign the
spacing and design the joists using this new spacing.