TIMBER

WOOD:

 Wood: One of the best engineering materials

 Used in almost all fields of engineering

 Used by man since pre-historic times

 Common applications: Building construction,

railways, agricultural, mining and navigation
industries.
CLASSIFICATION OF TREES
Trees

Exogenous Endogenous

Conifers Deciduous
TYPES OF TREES:

Trees are classified into two groups .

1. Endogenous trees:
The trees which grow inwards in longitudinal fibrous mass are called endogenous trees.
.:

2. Exogenous tress
The trees which grow in out wards across horizontal section of stem are called
exogenous trees. These trees are only fit for engineering construction
EXOGENOUS TREES ARE AGAIN SUBDIVIDED IN TO TWO TYPES.
CONIFERS OR EVERGREEN:
They give soft wood and have pointed leaves
examples:deodar pine chir kail,etc
DECIDUOUS•. OR BROAD LEAF TREES:
These have hard wood and have broad leaves
Examples:Teak Sal,Shisham, etc.
Structure of tree:
 From the visibility aspect, the structure of a tree can be divided into two categories
Macro structure
Micro structure

1. Macro structure: The structure of wood visible to

the naked eye or at a small magnification is
called macro structure.

exogenous tree.
(a)Pith: The innermost central portion or core of the tree is called pith or medulla.

(b)Heart wood: The inner annual rings surrounding the pith is known as heart wood.

(c)Sap wood: The cuter annual rings between heart wood and cambium layer is known as sap
wood.

(e)Cambium layer: Thin layer of sap between sap wood and inner bark is known as cambium layer. Inner
bark: The inner skin or layer covering the cambium layer is known as inner bark.

(f)Outer Bark: The outer skin or cover of the tree is known as outer bark.

(g)Medullary rays: The thin radial fibers extending from pith to cambium layer are known as medullary
rays.
2. Micro structure:

The structure of wood apparent only at great magnifications is called micro structure.

•Conductive cells
•Mechanical cells
•Storage cells
 TREE GROWTH
• New wood on outside of tree
– oldest wood on inside of tree
– youngest wood on outside
– diameter largest at base
– one ring (layer) per year
 Tree in forest grows towards
light
• trunk straight
• lower branches die
• leaving small knots in wood

 Bark protects wood from damage

• tree sheds bark each year
• Early wood
– rapid growth at beginning of
growing season
– thin, large cells - lighter colour
 Late wood
• slower growth, often limited by lack of water
• thick small cells - darker colour
• gives the growth ring
– Generally one ring per year
– some climates may have more than one growth season per year
– fires or disease may produce an extra ring
– Growth rings give texture and figure to wood
Definition:
TIMBER
 Timber denotes wood which is suitable for building
or carpentry and for various engineering and
other purposes.
 Timber is the wood used for building or for other
engineering purposes
 WHAT MAKES TIMBER A CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL?

 The natural purpose of wood is to

provide a framework which supports
the foliage and fruits of the tree and
which is resistant to lateral wind
forces and gravity loads.
 These natural structural properties
make it an ideal construction
material.
 Stronger than other construction materials in proportion of weight
 Workable: Can be easily worked to any size and shape
 Lightweight
 Economical: wastage is minimum
 Durable
 Non-conductor of heat and electricity.
 Standing timber: The timber in the form of a living tree
 Green timber: The freshly felled tree which has not lost much of its moisture
 Rough timber: The timber in the form of a felled tree
 Converted timber: Timber when sawn into various market sizes like beams, battens, planks etc.
 Dressed timber: Timber which has been sawn, placed and worked to exact required condition.
 Structural timber: Timber used in framing and load bearing structures
 Clear timber: Timber clear from defects and blemishes.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD TIMBERS
Appearance: A freshly cut surface of timber should exhibit hard and of shining appearance.

Color: A color should preferably be dark

Defects: A good timber should be free from series defects such as knots, flaws, shakes etc

Durability: A good timber should be durable and capable of resisting the action of fungi, insects,
chemicals, physical agencies, and mechanical agencies.

Elasticity: The timber returns to its original shape when load causing its deformation is removed.

Fire resistance: A dense wood offers good resistance to fire.

Hardness: A good timber should be hard.

Mechanical wear: A good timber should not deteriorate easily due to mechanical wear or abrasion.

Shape: A good timber should be capable of retaining its shape during conversion or seasoning

Smell: A good timber should have sweet smell. Unpleasant smell indicates decayed timber

Sound: A good timber should give a clear ringing sound when struck

Strength: A good timber should be sufficiently strong for working as structural member such as joist,
beam, rafter etc.
Structure: The structure should be uniform.

Toughness: A good timber should be tough (i.e.) capable of offering resistance to shocks due to
vibration.

Water permeability: A good timber should have low water permeability, which is measured by the
quantity of water filtered through unit surface area of specimen of wood.

Weight: The timber with heavy weight is considered to be sound and strong.

Working conditions: Timber should be easily workable. It should not clog the teeth of saw.
 Sapwood contains cells still
 used to transport nutrients
 Cells and vessels are open.
 Contains starches used as “food” for
the tree – also used as food for
insects and fungi – lower durability
 Cell walls increasing inthickness as
tree grows
 Heartwood contains blocked cells
 used for waste disposal and strength
 Cells and vessels closed
 Contains waste products from tree
growth – extractives – many are
harmful to insects and fungi
 – gives natural durability
 Cell wall thickness stable
 • Hardwoods
– broad leaf
– generally higher densities
– often dark in colour

• Softwoods
– needle-like leaves
– generally lower densities
– often light in colour
 SOFTWOOD HARDWOOD
• Mainly conifers – needle like leaves • Mainly broad leafed

• All cells transport nutrients within tree • Vessels (walls made of a number of cells)

• Growth stresses – tension on inside transport nutrients

• Most softwoods thinner cell walls • Growth stresses – compression on inside

• light in colour, lower density, lower hardness. • Most hardwoods thicker cell walls darker

• Open cell structure makes heartwood more in colour, higher density, higher hardness

receptive to treatment • Closed cell structure makes heartwood

more difficult to treat
Processes of obtaining timber
Trees should be felled when they have just matured or are maturing.
Trees in immature condition:
 are not durable as the heartwood and sapwood are green
 attract insects as the sap is in excess
 are uneconomical to cut In mature trees:
 Heartwood starts decaying
 Tree is liable to develop shakes and cracks due to drying up of the
sap
 The cut pieces are liable to distortion as by shrinkage and warping or drying because it is
seen that the circumferential shrinking is the greatest due to the evaporation of moisture,
as sapwood shrinks much more than heartwood.
 Thus rectangular pieces of wood become curved after sawing, called cupping.
 The central heartwood which shrinks much lesser remains almost unaltered in thickness.
 Quarter sawn timber

Advantages:
,
Best grain shows on face good wearing surface for furniture radial
face, floors, preferred for coatings lower width shrinkage on drying
less cupping and warp than other cuts can be successfully
reconditioned

Disadvantages:
slower seasoning nailing on face more prone to splitting
 BACK SAWN TIMBER

Unless specified otherwise, most structural timber and many appearance products are currently back
sawn or close to back sawn. Back sawn timber is characterised by:
 The long face of each board is close to a tangential face, and the short face is close to a radial
face.
 Growth rings parallel to long edge. The wide face does not intersect many growth rings.
 The growth rings on the wide face appear to be very wide apart, and some interesting patterns can
be seen.
 This cut offers more flexibility in that quite large boards can be back sawn from the wings of logs.
Here the maximum depth can be just less than the diameter of the log.
ADVANTAGES:
 Seasons more rapidly
 Good figure on face
 Less prone to splitting when nailing
 Wide sections possible
 Few knots on edge

DISADVANTAGES:
 Shrink more across width when drying
 More likely to warp and cup
 Collapsed timber more difficult to recondition
 Because of the cutting pattern, each piece of radially sawn timber is a wedge shape.
 It has sapwood on the wider edge and pith or core wood at the point.
 As real logs are not perfectly round and not perfectly straight, each radially sawn board reflects the
longitudinal shape of the log.

ADVANTAGES:
 Dimensional stability
 Less prone to warping, cupping less wastage in milling

DISADVANTAGES:
 Wedge shaped cross section more difficult to detail more difficult to stack
The process of drying timber or removing moisture or sap, present in a freshly felled timber, under more
or less controlled conditions is called seasoning of timber.
 Seasoning of wood is the first step in efficient utilization of timber
 Freshly felled timber contains a large quantity of moisture roughly from 100 % to 200 %, based on
dry weight of wood
 A well seasoned piece of wood contains
 10-12 % moisture and will be in equilibrium with the atmospheric humidity
 The degree of moisture content is necessary for proper retention of shape and size of component
parts.
Types of Timber Seasoning:
The main types of timber seasoning are as under.
(1)Natural Seasoning
(2)Artificial Seasoning
(a)Kiln Seasoning, (b) Chemical Seasoning, (c) Electric Seasoning
(3) Water Seasoning
 (1)Natural Seasoning
 In the air seasoning or natural seasoning or natural drying, seasoning of timber, timber is dried by
direct action of air, wind and sun. In this method, the timber logs are arranged one over the other,
keeping some space or distance between them for air circulation of fresh air.
 Generally this type of seasoning requires few months to over a year, this is very slow process.
 ADVANTAGES:
It is a simple and economical method.
It does not requires much skill and attention in the process of seasoning.
Being the slow process , the chances of seasoning defects in the timber are comparatively less

DISADVANTAGES
It is a very slow process.
The moisture content cannot be reduced less than 15 to 18 percent.
It can be easily attacked by insects and fungi
due to long period of seasoning even under favorable conditions.
The space required for staking timber is large.
a) Kiln Seasoning:
 It is usually a masonry chamber equipped with arrangement of heating ,humidifying and
circulating air in the kiln.
 In kiln seasoning timber is placed in a chamber with some special heating arrangement.
 In this process one thing should be kept in mind that heating system should be under
control, other wise timber will be crack or wrap .
 The time required for this seasoning is 3 to 12 days. This is quick process.
 Advantages:
seasoning can be done thoroughly well and in the shortest time under controlled process.
The wood can be used immediately as and when required.
It renders the timber less liable tobe attacked by insects and fungi and shrinkage.
The moisture content can be reduced as per the requirement

Disadvantages:
It is a costlier method though space required is less.
Skilled labour is required.
Being a quick process of drying , a continuous attention is required.
Also steam more or less weakens the strength and elasticity of timber.
1. Water-borne preservatives :-Water is the most common solvent carrier in preservative formulations
due to its availability and low cost.
2)Oil borne preservatives :-These include pentachlorophenol and creosote. They are toxic, have an
unpleasant odour and are generally not used in consumer products.
3) Organic solvent type preservatives: These preservatives are available in the following forms-
Copper Napthenate and Zinc Napthenate, Pentachlorephenal
4) Natural preservatives :-
I. Mud treatment :-
Wood and bamboo can be buried in mud to help protect it from insects and decay.
Used widely in Vietnam to build farm houses consisting of a wooden structural frame, a bamboo roof frame and
bamboo with mud mixed with rice hay for the walls.

II. Heat treatment :-

There is ongoing research as to whether heat treatments can be used to make timber more durable.
By heating timber to a certain temperature, it may be possible to make the wood-fibre less appetizing to insects.

III. Tung oil :

Known for hundreds of years in China, where it was used as a preservative for wood ships.
Oil penetrates wood and hardens to form an impermeable hydrophobic layer up to 5 mm into the wood.
I. Surface application or brush and spray method:-
This is done either by brush, spray or dipping the member in the preservative solution for a short period of time.
II. Soaking treatment:-
This treatment is carried out by submerging the timber in the preservative solution for a sufficiently long until the
required penetration of the preservative is obtained. It is also known as steeping.
IV.
III. Pressure process:-
In this method, the cylinder is loaded with the timber and door is closed. Vacuum is created and
maintained for half an hour so as to exclude as much air as possible from the wood cells. Then
preservative is filled into the cylinder under pressure and i9s held until the desired absorption
is obtained.

IV. Hot and cold process:-

In this process, the timber is submerged in the preservative oil or solution which is
heated to a suitable temperature and maintained at that temperature for a suitable period,
depending on the change.
1. Strength
2. Toughness
3. Elasticity
4. Resistance to shear
5. Hardness
6. Fire resistance
7. Retention of shape
8. Durability
9. Workability
 It should have uniform colour and regular annual rings.
 It should be from the heart of a sound tree and have straight fibres.
 It should have bright appearance with a silky luster when planned.
 It should be sweet to smell when freshly cut.
 It should be well seasoned and when cut with a saw, the surface should not clog the teeth of the
saw.
 It should be free from natural defects.
 It should not be affected by wood rotting, fungi and other insects.
 It should have firm adhesion of fibres and compact medullary rays.
 It should be hard, durable, elastic and tough i.e., resistant to shocks.
 Ringdall
Upsets
Shakes Knots
Coarse
Twisted
Grains
Fibres
A) SHAKES :-

The partial or complete separation between adjoining layers of tissues

Lower the resistance to shear

Commonly formed in logs which are allowed to stand even after attaining maturity
Indicate old age and Caused due to the shrinkage of wood

TYPES OF SHAKES
1. Heart shakes and star shakes
2. Radial Shakes
3. Cup shakes or ring shakes
I. Heart shakes and star shakes
Radial ruptures in annual rings or splits radiating from the heart and extending towards the sapwood are called
heart shakes
The shake occurring at near the pith and giving the appearance of a star at the end is called star shake These
shakes are caused by the quick drying of the central part of the tree.

II. Radial Shakes

The radial splits which extend from the bark towards the centre. These are caused when the outer
tissues dry faster than the inner ones.

II. Cup shakes or ring shakes

The openings along the growth rings are called cup shakes or ring shakes. Caused due to sudden increase of
moisture supplied by the root and then quick drying
 • SPLITS AND CHECKS

• Checks
• Splits
• Shallow – do not extend
• Extend through full width of timber
through timber
• Can be caused by
• Can be caused by
– Aggressive drying
– Normal drying
– Overstressing – Weathering
•
• Can be unsightly Can normally be filled Have
•
• Can cause reduction in strength little effect on strength
A "Check" is a long crack that
appears as the sap wood of a
timber shrinks around the heart
wood over time.
B) RINDGALL:
Curved swelling resulted fromthe growth of sap wood layers on
wound, left by falling or cut off branch in an irregular manner
caused because the new growth does not unite properly with the
old wood and leaves cavity where decaying action may set in.

C) KNOTS: The dark hard pieces indicating places

From where branches have been cut off When the knot is free
from decay and is firmly intact its called live knot or sound
knot. Knot which is not firm is called dead knot or loose knot
 margin
centre

arris

edge
D) TWISTED FIBRES :-The defect due to the fibres of tree which get twisted when young, by the force
of wind is called twisted fibres.
E UPSETS :- The defect caused by crushing or by injury in wood fibres

F) BURL/ BURR/ EXCRESCENCE: The growth of a large excrescence bulge which is formed on the
trunk or the branch of a tree due to certain injury inflicted when the tree is young is called burl,
burr or excrescence.
G) COARSE GRAINS: The widening of annual rings due to rapid growth of certain trees is called coarse
grains.
 WANT AND WANE

• Mechanical damage knocking off corner • Piece is cut from outer part of tree so
Unsightly if on exposed corner that part of corner is missing
• Discontinuity of grain can affect • Can have rustic appearance Rarely

• Strength Can have wane on timber cut affects bending

from anywhere in tree –needn’t be a sign • strength, make affect bearing

of sapwood • Shows that piece contains sapwood

• Bark

• Gum veins
Defects Occurring after falling of the tree

Case Hardening

Honey Combing

Collapse Foxiness

Twistiness & Bowling

Case hardening :- During kiln seasoning, the outer side of timber gets hard while the inner core
remains still wet due to rapid surface drying .

Honey combing :- This defect is due to the separation of the tissues in the interior of timber of
timber due to drying stresses, caused by incorrect kiln seasoning as the interior wood dries earlier
than the external surface.
COLLAPSE:- This defect is due to corrugated excessive and timber caused due to drying and
uneven shrinkage

FOXINESS:- This defect is due to the yellowish or reddish stains, caused by over maturity
and lack of ventilation during storage.

:-
•Dry Rot
•Wet Rot
•Insects
 Dry Rot :-The turning of timber tissues to almost dry powder by fungi is called dry rot.

 Eg. Of fungi :mushroom, spongy plant

 The fungus feed upon the wood and eats the wood tissue, thus penetrating the wood fibres from all direction.
Prevention:
1.well seasoned timber should be used.
2.timber should be used where there is free circulation and
access of air.
Remedy:
1.the timber should be painted with a solution of copper
sulphate.
2.the high temperature of seasoning of kiln helps in killing the
fungi.
WET ROT :- The disintegration of tissue of timber due to alternate wetting and drying is called wet rot.

The attacks take place through the wounds in bark by the access of water.
Prevention:
All timber for exterior or underground work should be first properly
seasoned and then coated with tar to keep out the dampness.
Remedy:
The best remedy for treating wet rot is by using a suitable
preservative.
 INSECTS
Certain insects such as termites, larva etc causes decay of timber. They build up mud tunnels to keep their
movements covered and continue their activity of eating into the wood under the surface.

Prevention:
1.damp proof condition 2.cement mortar in joints 3. well seasoned wood

Remedy:
1. suitable preservatives
2.Providing copper bottom to wood which comes in contact with water.