1) What do you know about round wood and sawn sections (3.1 and 3.2)?

Round wood is the simplest shape used in the construction industry. It is made of logs from
trunks or straight branches from which the bark has been removed and which may have been
slightly machined to obtain a cylindrical shape. Roundwood is used in a large variety of
structures, essentially outdoor: poles for telephone or electric wires, child games, acoustic walls,
retaining walls, bridges, towers. Roundwood is the shape that requires fewer mechanical
operations. As a minimum number of longitudinal fibres are cut during the process, the
variability in mechanical properties is somehow smaller than in sawn sections. The circular shape
is well adapted for compression forces because this shape has no weak axis. Joints between two
members are more difficult because there is no plane surface to ensure contact. Round wood is
particularly prone to tangential shrinkage cracks because all annual rings remain continuous

Sawn Section is one of the most widely used form of timber in construction. Sections are
typically square, for columns, and rectangles, for beams. Because of the limited length of
commercially available logs, the length is limited to 6 m, 8 m at most. Some dimensions are
standard and easily found in the commercial circuits. It is of course possible to order sections in
specific dimensions but the cost is likely to be higher and, as the elements must have been sawn
recently, they are as dry (or as wet) as the log from which they have been sawn; the additional
drying after sawing in standard sections cannot take place here.

Q) Can you explain what the system effect is?

In engineering design of multiple member wood structural systems, simple mechanical models
are often used to determine the load effects in each member. Quite often, the actual behaviour
of the system implies mechanical interaction between elements in the system, which is
neglected in a simple engineering analysis, but may be described by more advanced models, or
verified by testing. Since the theory of plasticity cannot be applied in general for timber
structures, structural system effects for timber cannot be quantified by simple engineering
calculation methods.

Systems effect in timber systems due to

unlikely that maximum load effects occur at cross-sections with very low strength

redistribution of load effects such that cross-sections with low strength and stiffness will
generally not have large load effects

non-linear material behaviour

Its like timber is a heterogeneous material its stiffness is not constant throughout the section
and if the cross section is stiff from somewhere it will attract larger force then the section or
connection which is less stiffness. Is simple words this is the system effects.

Q) What verifications have to be made for a prismatic beam in bending?

A prismatic beam in bending following verification must be made.

1. Section Modulus must me checked in Bending

2. Sectional Area must be sectioned in Shear
3. Section verified for lateral torsional buckling

Q) What is the behaviour of purlins, depending on the position of the section, vertical or not.

Purlin is a horizontal member connected between the rafters, which transfer the load from the
roof to the rafter. The position of the purlin defines the loading condition over the purlin.

If the purlin is placed perpendicular to the roof then the roof is going to transfer the loading in
such a way that it would lead to bending and if the purlin is placed vertical then the loading
transferred from the top is going to have two components, a vertical force acting in the major
bending axis and a horizontal force acting in weak axis.