Online Seminar

The design of wooden structures subjected to variable, increased strain rates required deeper knowledge of the dynamic material properties. Examples of dynamical loads include seismic and wind action on buildings, impact loads on sports equipment, impact loads on roadside crash barriers, etc..

Literature regarding the past accepted models of increased stiffness and strength based on rule-of-thumb factors are not satisfactory and do not provide confidence in the design and safety of structures based thereon. The material parameters for structural size wood were carefully examined under dynamic loading conditions, and a priori assumptions in the testing parameters, i.e. boundary con-ditions, modal interactions, contact plasticity, and machine artifacts corrupting the data were all subjected to scrutiny to provide better-fitting recommendations for statistical inference.

The theoretical approximations for wood given these impact mechanics are in good agreement with the data collected and provide a more appropriate starting point for discussing strain rate behavior using additional assumptions for wood. The research done can have a direct consequence on the building code values which are being used in the calculation of wooden structures