Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing

Timber Structures

Lecture
Assessing Wood Quality
 Material properties of wood
• The strength of old wood is (generally) not less than that of new wood
• (this is only valid for the short term strength – damage accumulation)
• The strength can be different from what is expected today for new wood,
because of different selection criteria when the wood was selected for the
structure.
• Decay (active or non-active) can be a cause for a reduction in strength
• Cracks can be a cause for a reduction in strength

• Moisture content shall be measured

• Wood species need to be determined
 Sorptionsisotherms for spruce at 20 °C

35

30
Wood moisture content %

25

20
Desorption

15
Hysterese
10 Adsorption

0 20 40 60 80 100
Relative Humidity  in %
3
Chemisorption Physisorption Capillary condensation
30

Wood Moisture Content [%]

Area1 Area 2 Area 3

0
0 100
4
Relative Humidity [%]
 Relationship between RH and wood moisture content

30

25

Hailwood‐Horrobin
20

15

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

RH
emc 
0.000928 RH 2  0.12545 RH  0.33467 in %
5

Hailwood-Horrobin (1946)
Differences between softwood / Hardwood
 Anisotropic: Longitudinal // fibre
Radial: Pith to bark
Tangential: // to the growth ring

Strength and stiffness strongly

depend on the fibre direction!
Timber has a certain quality….
´New´ timber is graded and assigned to strength classes (EN 338)
This assignment is based on 11 different criteria.

DIN 4074 distinguishes 3 grades for softwoods, S7, S10, S13

coinciding with strength classes C18, C24 and C30 for Spruce/Pine.

Relevant hardwood species concerns mainly oak.

Oak is generally assigned to either D18 or D30, depending on grading
standard and country.

An overview of species/grade/strength class combinations can be

found in EN 1912.
Strength classes of EN 338
Hardwood strength classes
 Strength relations EN 338 Classes

• Based on ´known´ relationships between parameters

• Based on testing in accordance with EN 408
Relationship between bending strength and compression strength for
spruce
60.0

55.0

Compression strength (N/mm2) 50.0 y = 5.1395x 0.4887

R2 = 0.2791
45.0

40.0

35.0
y = 5x 0.45
30.0

25.0

20.0
20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
Bending strength (N/mm2)

The relation between bending strength and compression strength as

assumed for the strength classes seems to be quite good….

12
 Summary of results of shear strength testing
Spruce – Medium and Dense hardwoods
Shear strength, species independent
25.0

Shear data ‐ Species independent

20.0
D‐classes 2016

D‐classes 2003
Shear strength (N7mm2)

15.0 Kovryga et al.

EN 338 proposal

10.0
D75 D80
D65 D70
Massaranduba,
5.0
Azobé currently
assigned to D70
Values of EN 338
0.0
0 200 400 600 Oak 800 1000 1200
Lesson learned: Density (kg/m3)
Strength values are generally higher
than published values in a standard
Visual grading requirements

11 Requirements according to DIN 4074-1

Knots Grain deviation Pith Growth ring Wane

Splits
Deformations
Discolourization
Beams Compression
All structural members
Boards wood
Insect damage
Others
Timber has a certain quality….

DIN 4074 or any other visual grading standard should NOT be

applied on existing structures, but should be seen as a guidance
document!

Examples:
Wane
Pith
Knot sizes
Fibre deviation

Relation: member sizes and strength

Strength class assignment
Old timber has been
selected and graded
as well!

Carpenter
requirements from the
17th century
factors and information can be obtained from:
• historical working documents (1540-1870)
• historical handbooks (1760-1935)
• modern standards and codes
• visual grading of soft/hardwoods
• quality classes of wood species

May 7, 2020 16
 Wane and pith

• Historical structures often have large cross sections containing

pith
• Members may have wane much higher than allowed by DIN 4074
• There is no (direct) reason to reject such members as they have
been in service for a long time.

Wood members containing pith

are vulnerable to cracking
 Wane and pith
• Wane does not influence the strength of
the material wane
• The geometry is affected, this needs to be
taken into account for the load carrying
capacity if wane is larger than the
requirement of the grading standard (DIN h
4074… etc).

b
• strength
• geometry
Knots and density
• Knots can be seen and measured (like in grading)
• Density can be measured, but requires more effort
• An estimation of the strength can be made….
Bending strength (N/mm2)

Bending strength (N/mm2)

Knottiness [-] Density (kg/m3)
 100
n=513

Tensile strength (N/mm2)

80
Rohdichte
[kg/m3]
60
600

40 500

400
20
300
0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 mm/mm 0,7
Knottiness DIN 4074, ´Gruppenäste´
 The location of knots
can be mapped. This
may beGrading:
a reason for
applying adjusted
- Knots
strength values.
- size
- position

- Grain deviation
- Growth
F ring width
F
Image of a failed beam – tension side

Cross sectional image

of a beam with a knot
unter a bending load
 Cracks…
• In old structures they are normally
caused by drying of large sections
after installation
• In ´newer´ structures made of
glulam they may be caused by
weather/climate exposure or
inadequate gluing.

• An analysis may be needed for

repair, replacement and/or
residual lifetime estimation.

May 7, 2020 22
 Drying cracks in structures:
• Appear over time
● Depend on: moisture content, wood
quality, way of sawing, relative humidity,
temperature… :

- What is the load carrying capacity?

23
Generally cracks can be accepted in
historic structures:
- if they are caused by drying;
- if the use of the structure is not
changed and is not going to be
changed;
- if the climate to which the
structures is exposed is not altered.
The structural engineer can make an
assessment for the sensitivity when
the cracks are ´mapped´:
The location and depth of cracks are
known! brem fm h bcrack  fm h 
   1  
b fv l b  v 
f l
24
 Generally cracks can be accepted in
historic structures:
- but what about the shear strength?
- the crack goes down into the juvenile
wood
- does juvenile wood have the same
shear strength as mature wood?→
Thesis work!

A. Menhofer, 2017
26
result: no (or hardly) any difference between juvenile and
mature (adult) shear strength in spruce.

Conclusion: shear strength does not need to be reduced!

Two cases of glulam: strength class GL24h

B x H = 200 x 600, fm = 24 MPa, fv = 4 MPa, Crack depth: 2 x 30 mm

• Check load carrying capacity?

• What would be your advice?
Fibre deviation

f c ,0 f c ,90 fc,0 = 30 N/mm2

f c , 
f c ,0 sin   f c ,90 cos 
2 2
fc,90 = 5 N/mm2

ft ,0 ft ,90 ft,0 = 40 N/mm2

ft , 
ft ,0 sin   ft ,90 cos 
2 2 ft,90 = 1 N/mm2
 Fibre deviation

Specimen 1128, Tensile strength: 7,64 N/mm2

Project 00510: Density: 421 kg/m3
Fibre deviation
Examples of wood components in practice

Examples of cracks, knots

and fibre deviation

Requirements and standards

vs. executed buildings
32
Grading standards

• Grading standards are products based:

• sawn timber (DIN 4074 or similar)
• softwood: part 1
• hardwood: part 5

• Applicability on existing buildings is questionable

• Indicative use
• Indicative for the strength class
• Motivations may lead to deviations

33
Modulus of elasticity
• In-situ measurements can be performed to determine
to modulus of elasticity:

• Static procedure
• Dynamic procedure (Vibration)
• Ultrasound procedure (Time of flight)

May 7, 2020 34
 If the beams are long,
the easier it becomes to
measure static MoE.

• Use a weight G
• Measure the deflection u
• Determine the stiffness
• Analyse possible errors in the
measurements
• Deviation from ´simple
mechanics´
• (location of G, deflection
accuracy, etc…)

May 7, 2020 35
Modulus of elasticity
Static procedure:

A load must be applied

Deflection must be measured
Generally, a three point bending test will be performed:

1 F  1 6ab3
Eh 
2

   1
 1.2   
48 EI  2  1 G  1  
 
with l beam length, l1 measurement length, a,b distance of F to the
supports, h beam depth, E = MoE, G = shear modulus.
Softwoods: E/G=20, Hardwoods E/G=15
May 7, 2020 36
Example case
ℓ beam length, ℓ1 measurement length = 10
m
Load in the center of span,
Wood species Oak
b x h = 200 x 300 mm.

How much weight do you expect to bring

for an accurate measurement?

3 
E h  with 1 beam length, ℓ1 measurement length, a,b
2
1 F  1 6ab  
 1
   1.2    distance of F to the supports, h beam depth, E = MoE,
48 EI  2  1 G  1   G = shear modulus.
  Softwoods: E/G=20, Hardwoods E/G=15

37
Modulus of elasticity
Static procedure:

Care must be taken when beams are short and or

support conditions may be hindering the measurement!

Density
• How to determine the density of an existing
beam/structure?
 Exercise 2: determination of stiffness
Basic data Parameter Units
Force F 720 N
length over all l 2730 mm
measurement lengl1 1470 mm
distance a to suppoa 1365 mm
distance b to suppob 1365 mm
Hardwood E/G E/G 15
Density rho 750 kg/m3
In‐situ measurements
Beam Width Depth TOF Deflection

Edyn  v 2  V = wave speed,

ρ = density
N
1
mm
110
mm
110
microsec
733
mm
0.76
2 120 120 608 0.45
1 F 31  1 6ab Eh 
2
3 130 110 744 0.76
    1.2   
48 EI  2  1 G  1   4 130 130 623 0.34
  5 125 125 587 0.36
!!! TOF Time of Flight measured on
length over all
Density

• Relationship between screw withdrawal strength and density

• Not a very good correlation.

• Structural damage.