Strength of Southern Pine 2 x 4 Beam-Columns,
Abstract
This paper presents a finite element program, Ultimate Strength of Beam-Columns (USBC), able to simulate the destructive testing of in-grade lumber under combined bending and compression. It also presents two kinds of test data on southern pine 2 x 4's: tests of short members provide an input properties distribution for USBC, and tests of full-length members in seven groups of various lengths and grades provide verification data to evaluate the performance of USBC. The simulator USBC reproduced the mean and variance of each group very well, especially for shorter, lower grade members. It is somewhat conservative for longer, higher grade members but this is deemed acceptable because these cases can be designed as homogeneous elastic bodies. The simulator was then employed to study the interaction of bending and compression in each of the seven groups of full-length members by simulating the testing of each piece under many combinations of moment and axial load. The results demonstrate the conservation of the linear interaction equation used in timber design, especially at shorter lengths and lower grades. This is important to the efficient design of wood beam-columns such as wall studs and truss chords. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA143138
Entities
People
- J. J. Zahn
Organizations
- Forest Products Laboratory