Development and investigation of a hybrid built-up column made of small diameter logs originating from juvenile trees

• Published in: Journal of wood science Vol. 64; no. 4; pp. 356 - 363
• Main Authors: Wu, Guofang, Zhu, Enchun, Zhong, Yong, Gong, Yingchun, Ren, Haiqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.08.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bearing strength; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Building materials; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Civil engineering; Columns (structural); Construction materials; Deformation effects; Design specifications; Forest management; Forestry; Life Sciences; Limbs; Load carrying capacity; Materials Science; Mechanical properties; Natural resources; Original Article; Predictions; Raw materials; Structural members; Timber; Trees; Wood; Wood construction; Wood Science & Technology; Wood sciences; Timber structure; Effective slenderness ratio; Juvenile round timber; Built-up column; Load-carrying capacity
• ISSN: 1435-0211; 1611-4663
• DOI: 10.1007/s10086-017-1689-1

Small diameter logs from juvenile trees are heavily produced during the management of artificial forests around the world. As a kind of plentiful and inexpensive natural resource, the potential was not fully explored. So far the small diameter logs are mainly used as raw materials for products other than building materials. To utilize these small diameter logs originating from juvenile trees as structural members into wood construction, a kind of hybrid built-up column was developed and the performance was investigated experimentally and theoretically. It was found that column had good load-carrying capacity. To apply the developed member in wood construction, the prediction method of the column was proposed. The effective slenderness ratio which took the shear deformations due to the bending of limbs and slip of nail connections between U-shaped nails and limbs into consideration was derived based on mechanics theory. The proposed prediction method was found to have good accuracy in predicting the load-carrying capacity of the hybrid built-up column. This paper can promote the structural application of the small diameter logs originating from juvenile trees.