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CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures

The Lecturer: [Link] Málaga Chuquitaype CEng, MSc, Mprof, PhD (DIC)

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood § Earthquake engineer - researcher, engineer, educator
§ Professional Civil Engineer, MSc in Earthquake Engineering, MSc in
Engineering Seismology, PhD in Structural Earthquake Engineering
§ Over 15 years of “real world” professional experience:
design, construction, management à now specialized consultancy / expert
opinion)
§ I am also involved in the development of design codes (EC8)

Dr Christian Málaga-Chuquitaype
[Link]@[Link]

“We are working to enhance

the resilience of communities
by devising, understanding
and promoting new
sustainable structural systems
and design methods, for
which we employ a variety of
numerical, analytical and
Emerging Structural Technologies Research experimental tools."
@ Imperial College London

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Amiya Basu prize for use of AI Technologies in Civil Engineering

De Kestelier (2015) McLean, Málaga-Chuquitaype, et al. (2020)

Maqdah. Málaga-Chuquitaype, et al. (2021)

We work in different
materials: Steel, composite,
timber …

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Marcel & Málaga-Chuquitaype (2018) Assessment of the Performance of Digitally Manufactured Japanese Joinery CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures
for Modern Timber Construction, Imperial College London

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)
Yatoi-hozo

The global challenge of urban population growth and its

CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures
pressure on the environment and climate
Mexico City
Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

• People is moving to cities (2.5 billion people by 2050).

• We need to build a city for 1 million people each week!
• The magnitude of the problem, in terms of size, resources, and time, is
1. Introduction enormous.
2. Mechanical properties of wood
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

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The global challenge of urban population growth and its … and on top of that we have the issue of global warming
pressure on the environment and climate (reduce CO2 emissions)
Mexico City Mexico City

• People is moving to cities (2.5 billion people by 2050).

• We need to build a city for 1 million people each week!
• The magnitude of the problem, in terms of size, resources, and time, is
enormous.
• More than 117 Million people live in slums in LatAm alone.

… and on top of that we have the issue of global warming

(reduce CO2 emissions)
Mexico City

• The building industry contributes ~ 40 / 50 % of the world’s carbon … yours is probably the last generation that will be
emissions. able to do something about it!
• To avoid catastrophe, innovative structural engineering needs to play a
critical role in improving the sustainability, material efficiency, and
resilience of our built environment.

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… material choice matters Timber, the only construction material that

grows with the sun

260 buildings: TRADA Case Study

Average 425 kgCO2e/m2 2500

2000

1500

1000 Comparison of CO2

emissions for different

Tonnes CO2
500

versions of the same

1720 1820 660
0

-5 0 0 -2130 building
-1 0 0 0

-1 5 0 0

-2 0 0 0

-2 5 0 0
Con cre te Steel & pre cast Ti mbe r Ti mbe r wit h
seq ues tr atio n
De Wolf et al. (2015) ICE

An old/new friend: wood

An old new friend
Innovations in structural timber

Naples subway station. Source: domusweb Urnes Stave Church, XII Century (c. 1132). Photo: Leo-setä
Emerging Structural Technologies Research Group

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An old/new friend: wood

Cruck House, Lichfield, XV Century.

Photo: Lichfield Lore King’s Cross 1852, Bolted-laminated timber

Timber makes a comeback 100 years later

Paddington 1854 – Cast Iron. Source: Wikipedia

The wooden wonder: Mosquito WWII. Glued laminated timber. Source: Wikipedia

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… and now

Glulam. Photo:Dvrene Konstrukcije

An old new friend

Innovations in structural timber
Light

Fast
1. Why wood?
2. Why the fuss? What changed with engineered wood?
3. A few research examples Pictures from Fast, Light and Green by MetzaWood

Naples subway station. Source: domusweb Green

Emerging Structural Technologies Research Group

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… but it comes with its own challenges:

Chuquitaye et
. (2014,2016)

Multi-storey timber buildings: Large-scale tests on CLT panels

Lateral deformation modes of CLT buildings

- Two fundamental failure mechanisms have been observed in CLT shear walls

Time-lapse lateral resistance test on CLT panel (Tall timber buildings, seismic)
Sliding Rocking

Chuquitaye et
. (2014,2016) 8
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CLT panels
• Shell elements
• Linear elasYc material

Hold-down connectors Brackets and screws

• Tension spring elements • Shear spring elements
• Nonlinear inelastic material • Nonlinear inelastic material
• Pinching behaviour • Pinching behaviour

Chuquitaye et
. (2014,2016)

Cyclic response of CLT walls and cores Dynamic response of CLT buildings

Displacement Displacement
Experimental and numerical Experimental and numerical
history at 1st level history at 7th level
hysteresis cumulative energy

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NHERI’s 10-storey building by Prof Shiling Pei NHERI’s TallWood 10-storey rocking building

NHERI’s TallWood 10-storey rocking building NHERI’s Tall Wood Project

Prof Shiling Pei at al.

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Smaller buildings Digital wood

are more common

Take timber off-site

construction to the
next level

Simple, beautiful, zero-

carbon building, for
everyone.

Digital wood Digital wood

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Digital wood Digital wood

Other areas of study: timber road bridges

Other recent studies
• Timber-Concrete
Composite (TCC)
bridges with pre-
stressed underdeck
tendons.
• The addition of post-
tensioning changes the
critical limit-state of the
bridge and allows for
large slenderness
(preferred l/h > 40 when
EAS is employed, 30 –
90 m span). Kothalawala & Málaga-Chuquitaype
(2021) Integrated digital design &
manufacture of timber structures, Imperial
College London

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Other recent studies

Innovations in timber structures

New engineered timber materials are revolutionizing the

construction industry taking advantage of
advancements in manufacture, digital fabrication and
anti-seismic technologies, wood offers a way to tackle
the global challenge of climate change.

Kothalawala & Málaga-Chuquitaype

(2021) Integrated digital design &
manufacture of timber structures, Imperial
College London

CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood (cellular solids)
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)
Douglas Fir, source: Grosser, 1977

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• Cellulose, hemicellulose and pecBn consBtute

more than 70% of the dry content of wood
• Cellulose is aggregated into structures called
microfibrils (3–5 nm) that interact with
hemicellulose and lignin to form a macrofibril
(25–30 nm)
• The orientaBon of these macrofibrils varies
within the layered structure of the wood cell wall
which consists of four disBnct layers (primary, S1,
S2, and S3) with different thicknesses and
chemical composiBons.
• The anisotropic behavior, the mechanical
performance and the shrinkage properBes of
wood are highly dependent on the microfibrillar
orientaBon in the thick S2 layer.[2]

Toumpanaki et al. (2020)

Structure of the cell wall. Source: BookerandSell,1998 Schematic structure and cell types of softwood. Source: Nardi-Berti, 1993

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SchemaYc structure and cell types of hardwood. Source: Nardi-BerY, 1993 Stress-strain curves, balsa, tangential. Source: Easterling, 1982

Stress-strain curves, balsa, radial. Source: Easterling, 1982 Stress-strain curves, balsa, axial. Source: Easterling, 1982

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A mathematical discussion on the structure of wood in

relation to its elastic properties, Price (1928)

Source: Royal Society, 1928

• Relative density ranges

Honeycomb structure. Source: Gibson, 1997 Balsa and Lignum Vitae, source: Wikipedia

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WOOD MODEL AS CELLULAR MATERIAL : YOUNG’S MODULUS CONCLUSIONS

• Tangential direction (x1): • Wood is a complex material
• At very small scales it has the structure of a fibre-reinforced
composite (crystalline cellulose fibres in a hemicellulose matrix)
• In most wood species, the structure of the fibre-reinforced cells is
• Radial direction (x2): similar which means that the primary difference between woods
can be attributed to differences in their cellular structure
• Based on principles of cellular solids we can see that above all, the
relative thickness of the cell walls (or relative density) is
• Axial direction (x3): determinant for the mechanical behaviour of wood (including its
anisotropy)

CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - ANISOTROPY

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood (from EC5 perspective)
- L : parallel to the grain (fibres)
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
- T and R : perpendicular to the grain (fibres)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

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CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - ANISOTROPY CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - TENSION 90o

- Tension perpendicular to grain: 1-2 N/mm2 - Tension perpendicular to grain: 1-2 N/mm2
- Compression perpendicular to grain: 2-4 N/mm2 - Compression perpendicular to grain: 2-4 N/mm2

CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - COMPRESSION 90o

- Tension perpendicular to grain: 1-2 N/mm 2

- Compression perpendicular to grain: 2-4 N/mm 2

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CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - ANISOTROPY

- Tension parallel to grain: 80-100 N/mm2

- Compression parallel to grain: 40-50 N/mm2

CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - TENSION 0o

- Tension parallel to grain: 80-100 N/mm2

- Compression parallel to grain: 40-50 N/mm2

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CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - COMPRESSION 0o

- Tension parallel to grain: 80-100 N/mm2

- Compression parallel to grain: 40-50 N/mm2

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES – FLEXURAL STRENGTH

CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - DEFECTS

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CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES – MOISTURE CONTENT CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood (viscoelasticity)
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

TIMBER IS A VISCOELASTIC MATERIAL (MEMORY) TIMBER IS A RHEOLOGICAL MATERIAL (MEMORY)

• Wood exhibits deformations that are dependent upon the loading history and total elapsed Creep coefficient:
time.
• Rheological behaviour is also a function of the thermal and moisture histories and their
interactions with the loading history.
• Hooke (1635 – 1703): elastic solids
• Newton (1642 – 1727): viscous fluids
• Wilhelm Weber (1804 – 1891): tests on silk shows solid behaviour has a viscous component
• James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879): introduced elastic properties into the description of fluids
• After WWII interest in polymers and composite materials under varying conditions of
temperature and humidity
• Creep test vs. relaxation test

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RHEOLOGY: THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF CREEP IN WOOD (1)

• J. D. Boyd (1982). An anatomical explanation for visco-elastic and mechano-sorptive creep in wood and
effects of loading rate on strength. In P. Baas, (Ed.), New perspectives in wood anatomy, pages 171–222.

The study of the flow of matter, primarily in a liquid or gas

state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in
which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming
elastically in response to an applied force.

THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF CREEP IN WOOD (2) THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF CREEP IN WOOD (3)

• P. U. A. Grossmann (1978). Mechano-sorptive behaviour. In B. A. Boyd, J. A. Johnson and R. W. Perkins, • P. Hoffmeyer and R.W. Davidson (1989). Mechano-sorpMve creep mechanism of wood
(Ed.), General constitutive relations of wood and wood-based materials, pages 313–325.
in compression and bending. Wood Science and Technology, 23: 215–227.

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WOOD’S CREEP BEHAVIOUR Wood’s creep depends on LOAD DIRECTION and ACTION

Constitutive relations
Source: STEP, 1995 Wanninger et al. (2014) Gressel (1984)

Wood’s creep depends on TEMPERATURE & RELATIVE HUMIDITY PRINCIPLES OF VISCOELASTICITY: BASIC ELEMENTS

Spring Dashpot

Huet et al. (1981) Hanhijärvi (1995)

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BASIC MODELS
CONCEPTUAL MODELS
Maxwell Kelvin-Voigt
• All creep models are phenomenological
(need to be calibrated)
• Simple models like the Burger’s Body 4-
element model can be assumed when
creep is sensibly linear with respect to
the stress level and when the behaviour
never progresses beyond the secondary
phase

RHEOLOGICAL MODELS FOR WOOD (1) RHEOLOGICAL MODELS FOR WOOD (2)

• T. Toratti (1992). Creep of timber beams in variable environment. PhD Thesis, Helsinki • A. Hanhijarvi (1995). Modelling of creep deformation mechanisms in wood. PhD
University of Technology, Laboratory of Structural Engineering and Building Physics. Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology. Technical Research Centre of Finland. VTT
Publications. Espoo (SF).

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RHEOLOGICAL MODELS FOR WOOD (3) RHEOLOGICAL MODELS FOR WOOD (4)

• P. Becker (2002). Modellierung des zeitund feuchteabh angigen Materialverhaltens • A. Martensson (1992). Mechanical behaviour of wood exposed to humidity
zur Untersuchung des Langzeitverhaltens von Druckstaben aus Holz. PhD Thesis, variations. PhD Thesis, Lund University.
Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar.

COMPARISON OF RHEOLOGICAL MODELS CONCLUSIONS

Creep coefficient for constant loading, a constant moisture content of 10% and an edge
stress of 13.2 N/mm2 • Rheological models of wood can get very complicated
• For the range of models proposed, besides the difference in
their absolute value, the temporal evolutions of their predicted
creep deformations are wildly different
• These differences will be exacerbated if we consider varying
operational conditions (variable humidity and loads)
• These differences are unacceptable and a rigorously validated
model is yet to be proposed. This, however, is complicated by
the long duration required

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CIVE70006: Design of Timber Structures CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES – MOISTURE CONTENT

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood (from EC5 perspective)
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

CODE APPROACH TO MECHANICAL PROPERTIES – LOAD DURATION

MATERIAL DESIGN PARAMETERS

Material safety
factor

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MATERIAL PARTIAL SAFETY FACTOR MATERIAL DESIGN PARAMETERS - Kmod

- Load duration
- Moisture content
- Temperature
- Size

MATERIAL DESIGN PARAMETERS - kmod

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

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TENSION – PARALLEL (0o) TO GRAIN

Demand < Capacity

TENSION – PERPENDICULAR (90o) TO GRAIN TENSION – PERPENDICULAR (90o) TO GRAIN

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COMPRESSION – PARALLEL (0o) TO GRAIN COMPRESSION – PERPENDICULAR (90o) TO GRAIN

*But look out for instabilities!

COMPRESSION – PERPENDICULAR (90o) TO GRAIN LOAD AT AN ANGLE TO THE GRAIN

Tension:

Compression:

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BENDING (BI-AXIAL)
COMBINED BENDING AND AXIAL

Combined tension and bending

Elastic section
modulus: bh^2/6

COMBINED BENDING AND AXIAL SHEAR

Combined compression and bending

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CIVE97114: Design of Timber Structures SLS- SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATE

Lecture 01: Mechanical properties of wood

*Importance of creep in wood

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical properties of wood
3. Code strength checks (ULS)
4. Code serviceability checks (SLS)

SLS- SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATE SLS- SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATE

Importance of creep
A different set of combination coefficients

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SLS- SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATE

*Include shear deformaMons!

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