Course syllabus for Timber engineering

The aim is to provide advanced knowledge in the design of simple and complex timber structures, detailing and connections. This includes the skills necessary to evaluate and design the structural system for multi-storey timber buildings and wide span structures with walls, floors, columns, beams, and/or trusses made of timber elements. The course provides an understanding of both general structural performance and how various more complex elements such as engineered wood products (EWP) including glulam, cross-laminated timber, wood-based box beams and I-beams, and wood-based panels behave in the structure. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on understanding the design of connections and some detailing, as well as the design of members with combined cross-sections, to enable evaluation of the behaviour of different elements in serviceability conditions, including the vibration and springiness in timber-based floors. The course is based on the state-of-the-art and gives introduction into the regulations specified in Eurocode 5 (the European standard for the design of timber structures).

After this course, students will be equipped to work at structural engineering companies and be able to design the vast majority of timber structures. Students will obtain practical experi-ence of the possibilities of designing the main parts of multi-storey timber buildings and wide span structures. In order to do this, students should be able to:

- Identify and explain the specific aspects of timber construction, the strengths and weaknesses and some specific challenges related to the design

- Applying Eurocode 5 to perform structural design of timber structures

- Describe, explain, construct, examine (design) and verify stabilizing structural systems for multi-storey timber buildings

- Describe the effects of the different components of wood-based floor elements, evalu-ate their static behaviour, investigate their dynamic behaviour and assess the compo-nents and properties that influence this behaviour

- Identify the demands on connections used in timber construction and assemble and design adequate connections for individual situations

- Optimize structures with regard to structural performance, economy and appearance, based on the critical understanding of the properties and behaviour of members and connections.

The course consists of four main areas and they include: 

A) Introduction to Eurocode 5 (EC5)

i. Material properties related to EC5

ii. Structural timber, Glulam, CLT, and engineering wood products (EWP) - main differences

B) Design of structural timber elements in ULS and SLS

i. Tension, compression and loading at the angle to the grain

ii. Cross-sections subjected to combined stresses

iii. Glulam beams with varying cross-sections: tapered, curved and pitched cam-bered

iv. Glued thin-webbed beams (I-beams and box beams) and Glued thin-flanged beams and elements

v. Vibration and springiness in floors

vi. Fire & Timber

C) Design and production of multi-storey buildings 

i. Structural systems and construction methods of timber buildings

ii. Stabilising systems for multi-storey timber buildings and long span structures

iii. Models for shear walls, diaphragms and their design

iv. CLT Structures

D) Detailing and connections 

i. Dowel-type joints – theory and optimisation

ii. Conception of mechanical and glued joints

iii. Strengthening and repair of timber structures

iv. Notched beams, holes, splitting and cracking