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Development of the KT-wood space truss system with

round timber as a new structural material

K. IMAI, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan


Y. FUJITA, Fujita Architect Office, Osaka, Japan
T. FURUKAWA, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
K. WAKIYAMA, Osaka Sangyo University, Osaka, Japan
S. TSUJIOKA, Fukui University of Technology, Fukui, Japan
M. FUJIMOTO, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
M. INADA, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
A. TAKINO, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
M. YOSHINAGA, Kawatetsu Civil Co. Ltd., Kobe, Japan

INTRODUCTION
This paper presents the development of the KT-Wood Space Truss System (KT-W) utilizing
round timber processed from young trees culled from forests. As a significant percentage of
forestation problems in Japan can be traced to young trees not being properly or selectively
culled, their effective utilization contributes to maintaining a forest in prime condition. This
results from their added value giving an economic incentive to cull them and thereby
contributes the proper forest maintenance and the protection of the forest environment.
The purpose of the development is to utilize effectively the medium and low quality timbers
(Japanese cedar and Japanese cypress: conifer trees) as value added material. The feature of
the joint system is the main point to use such material.

To the KT-Series (KT-I-III) that is patented in many countries around the world and been
applied to over 350 structures in Japan, the KT-W is a new addition. KT-I-III and W have
mutual compatibility in the installation of their respective parts.
The joint system is designed in order to endure more severe loads and/or the detrimental
effects of environmental conditions than ever before and to fit well to the esthetic
requirement such as graceful appearance, hi order to realize these architectural requirements,
the system has following special features: 1) ease of fabrication without the need of skilled
labor (no welding process), 2) high reliability factor when joints under static and cyclic
loading, 3) ease of assembly at the construction site, 4) exceptional resistance to corrosion of
metal part, 5) mixed installation of steel and wood structures because of the full compatibility
of KT-series, and 6) ease of replacement of decayed members.

The paper reports the outline of the system, full size material tests (tensile, compression and
pull-out test of lag screw) for constructing wooden space truss system.

OUTLINE OF THE SYSTEM


Joint System
KT-W joint consists of KT-truss joint assembly, joint cone, end disk at the end of round
timber and lag screws in order to anchor the end disk. As an initial clamping force to the lag

Space Structures 5, Thomas Telford, London, 2002

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156 SPACE STRUCTURES 5

screw can be introduced, looseness of the joint that will be generally serious defect of the
wooden structures can be easily eliminated. In case of the shear bolt joint that is most
commonly used, it is not easy to eliminate such defect. This idea is similar to "pull bolt joint
(so called Hiki-bolt)" that is the traditional Japanese carpenter's technique. Another important

Left hand thread (glued)


Joint cone Lag screw
\ /—
Node

Round Timber
KT-truss Joint End-disk (E-disk)
assembly

Fig. 1 Joint Detail Fig. 2 Joint Detail

Long type

Fig. 3 Lag screw


Example of Ml 6
Effective length of thread : 133 (standard), 183 (maximum)

advantage is that any bending moment doesn't occur at the joint, because of no joint
eccentricity. This feature is especially important for the weak material in joining such as
wood. The joint cone is the interconnecting part between KT-truss joint assembly and end
disk. Joint cone is screwed into the end disk and glued (see Fig. 1,2). Specially designed lag
screw that pull out resistance is strengthened is applied for the joint system (See Fig. 3). Fully
mechanical joint realizes no need of skilled labor for fabrication and installation. All metal
wares are elegantly powder coated in general and perform a graceful appearance. The powder
coating endures preferably more than 15 years even in the outdoors in our experience.

The system consists of the following components.


1) A threaded spherical node (50-235 mm in diameter).
2) KT-truss joint assembly (high strength bolt / M8xl.25~M42x3). (allowable stress for
permanent use is 14.2~445.9KN).
3) Round timber, 50-300mm in diameter, (allowable stress for permanent use is 12.5-
450.3KN for cypress and 10.6 - 381.0KN for cedar in tension. 16.3 - 588.9KN for cypress
and 14.5 - 519.5KN for cedar in compression.).
4) Lag screw, M12x4-36x6 (standard & long type).

Installation of Members
During the assembly of the space truss, the threaded end of the bolt is pushed into the
hexagonal sleeve and then the hexagonal sleeve is turned at the threaded hole of the node (see
Fig. 4). In this manner, assisted by the pushing device, which provides a pushing action, the
bolt enters the node hole smoothly.

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IMAI ET AL. 157

The installation of members is, therefore, simplified assuming that the distance between
adjacent nodes accurately reflects the correct measurement of the final assemblage. This
mechanism, which eliminates the necessity to consider the order in which members are
assembled, drastically simplifies dismounting in the event that disassembled bars occur.
Especially the ease of the replacement of decayed members is inevitable in wooden structures.
The members of traditional systems cannot be assembled in this manner due to the fact that
the bolt must project slightly from the hollow sleeve in order to be screwed into the node hole.
Because of full compatibility of installation in the KT-I-III and W, the mixed use of wooden

Fig. 5
Citizen's
" Workshop for
construction
of elliptic
End-disc(E-disc) \ Lag screw
dome

Fig. 4 Installation process

and steel structures is Table 1 Range of the system : cypress (extracted)


possible. High tensile boll of KT-Trusss
(KN)
Medium quality (cypressl
And the ease of fabrication MS M 0 MI2 Ml 6 M20 no lo
M21
timber Allowable stress for 60.96(P L ) 95.16 PL.)
without the need of skilled diameter
(mm)
permanent load
14 21(PL) 22.54(PL.) 32 7J(P L.)
M30
M36
21 32(TL.) 49 10(T L.) 142.74(T.L.)
labors (no welding process lens ion compression M42
1-M12 7.61
and ease of installation) #50 12.51 13.47
1-MI2 9 83 (PL) Al jw^^le stress for P^rmsnsnt Losd
1-MI2 7.61 I-MI2 7.61 ( I L i A owable stress for emporar\ Load
realizes the economical 18.01
1-MI2 9.83 2-M12 15.22
*60 19.40
production and 1 -Ml 6 13 Ml I-M16
I-MI6
13 10
18 03

construction everywhere. 1-MI6


I-M16
13 10
18.03
I-MI6
I-M16
13.10
18.03
*80 32.02 34.48
Fig. 5 shows the 2-MI6
I-M:C'
26 21
22 17
2-M16
1-M20
26.21
28.32
construction by the 2-MI6 36 06 2-\l\t» 16 06
I-M20 22 17 I-M20 22.17
citizen' s workshop *IOO 50.03 53 88
L-M2G 28 32 1-M20 28 32
:AI:O 56 65
including children at the I-M24 33 99 I-M24 33 99
1-M24 41.38
forest park. The ease of the 2-M16 36 06

installation, dismount and *120 72.04 77 58


1-M20
!-M20
22
28
17
U
I-M2O 2S.32
5d fi5
:: \i?.u
replacement is clarified by 1-M24 3.1 99 1-M24
:-M;U
41 iB
•14.33 2-M20 44 3 i
the workshop. *150 112.57 121 23
2-M2O 56.65 4-M20 88.67
1-M24 41.38 I-MI4 82.76
I-M30 72.41 I-MM 72.41
J-M20 66.50
The range of the system is 4-M20 8S.67
*180 162 10 174.57
shown in Table 1 in Legend 2-M24 82 7fi

combining the truss bolt number LMMrtwstw


2-MU,
Pull oul sirens
2<>2I
i-MJO
2-M24
72 41
67.98

and lag screw size with *210 220 63 237 60


tongtvi?« screw 2-M16 36 00 3-M24
2-M24
101.97
82.76
timber diameter. t-MJO 72 41
up to *240, 270&300

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158 SPACE STRUCTURES 5

Allowable compression and tension stress of timber are based on the medium quality cypress
by AIJ code (Japanese code) so far. Pull out strength is based on the
author's test in the succeeding section. Pull out strength is possibly the
ruling factor of the joint. Designer can choose the suitable number of lag
screws in order to make the structure economical
regarding the magnitude of the tensile stress of member.
By the full size tensile test, three times of the AIJ code
is obtained. In the future, such result that is quite
different from the code should be evaluated based on |
sufficient number of data.

TEST PROCEDURE AND RESULTS OF THE


FULL SIZE TEST OF TIMBERS
Specimens were made from Japanese cedar and cypress
those are relatively young and low quality trees. 24
pieces of full size round timbers were tested under
tensile loading and 24 pieces under compressive loading.
73 pull out specimens of lag screw were tested under Fig. 6 Test set-up
tensile loading simulating the joint. Fig. 6 shows the (Left: pull out Right: tensile)
tensile and pull out test. This kind of tests hardly tried so
far because of the difficulty of loading. Specially designed testing jig was successfully
developed.
Fig. 7 shows typical failure modes under tensile loading. Fig. 9 and 10 show typical load-
deformation relations.
In tension, the specimens fractured brittle without any plastic deformation. The maximum
strength is more than from two to three times compared
with the minimum specified material strength of high
grade material by AIJ code (solid lines in Fig. 9). The
results by this study are quite
different from the small i
specimens without defects I
based on JIS (Z 2101) that J
specifies AIJ codes.

Fig. 7 Failure mode (tensile test)

P(kN) Specified material strength(min)


by AIJ for high grade timber

d (mm)
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Fig. 8 Failure mode
Fig. 9 load-deformation (tensile test) (compression test)

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IMAI ET AL. 159

This shows the possibility that the round timbers with so called medium and low quality can
be applied widely equally to high grade material. In case of cypress timber with narrow
annual rings, strength/weight ratio is greater or equal to ultra-duralumin. Surface defect
doesn't affect seriously to the strength of the timber. And also it is clarified that the damping
factor of the wooden space
frame is considerably high
compared with steel member
by authors' another study in
this conference. By this
analysis, wood has a
possibility as a new structural
material for the space frame.
In compression, specimens
fractured by the fiber buckling
(Fig. 8). The maximum stress
is grater than the minimum
specified material strength of
medium gradematerialbyAIJ
code roughly. The results Fig. 10 load-deformation ( compression test)
show the ductile deformation
after yielding.

(MPa) (MPa)

*• • • •
ft
• •»
•• **
v. •

0 50 080 0120 050 080 0120 *80 0120 b80 0120


ceder cypress ce ier cyp ess

Fig. 11 Pull out strength of lag screw (left :single bolt, right :double bolts)
Fig. 11 shows the pull out unit shear strength ( t r ) per surface area of lag screw. There is a
tendency that x r of single bolt is greater than double bolts. This results from unequal pull
out strength because of unequal tightening of bolt. By improving tightening method, strength
will be higher.

CONCLUSIONS
The wooden space truss system that utilizes effectively the so-called medium and low quality
timbers with small and medium size is successfully developed. And the effectiveness of
combining the previously existing steel space truss system to the wooden system is clarified.
The possibility of the wood as a new structural material for the space frame was clarified. The
potentialities of the wooden space truss were also shown in this study.

Acknowledgement
The authors express their gratitude to the forester (manager) of Hyogo Prefecture Mr. Shigeru
Okada for his beneficial and hospital suggestions.

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160 SPACE STRUCTURES 5

REFERENCES
1. Imai K., Morita T., Yamaoka Y., Wakiyama K. and Tsujioka.S. : The KT Space Truss
System", FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SPACE STRUCTURES, vol. 2,
GULDFORD, 1993,pp.l374-1382.
2. Mengeringhausen Max :Raumfachwerke aus Staben und Knoten, Bauverlag, Berlin, 1975
3. Nooshin H.: Third International Conference on Space Structures, Elsevier Applied Science
Publishers, London, 1984.
4. Imai K., Wakiyama K., Tsujioka.S., Fujimoto M., Hideki W., Masanobu I. and Morita T. :
Development of the KT-Wood Space Truss System, IABSE Conference Lahti, Finland,
August, 2001
5. Imai K, Fujita Y, Wakiyama K, Tsujioka S, FujimotoM, Watanabe H, Inada M, and Morita
T: FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE KT-WOOD SPACE TRUSS SYSTEM, Proc. of
IASS Int. Symposium 2001, Nagoya, Oct. 9-13, TPNo.157, 2001.10
6. Furukawa T., Imai K., Fujimoto M, Komedani N., Inoue R., Okamoto K. and Fujita
Y.:Dynamic Loading Experiment of Wooden Single Layer Two-Way Grid Cylindrical Shell
Roof, FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SPACE STRUCTURES,
GULDFORD, 2002, will be issued

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