Creep in Timber Structures

This book presents the current state of the art concerning creep in wood, timber and timber structures. It brings together up-to-date information from research and practice about the interaction between moisture changes and mechanical loading, which may lead to excessive deflections or joints movements in timber structures. Modelling of this interaction is a relatively recent development, with important applications in timber engineering, that will have consequences for national and international structural codes of practice. The importance of deflection requirements in design of timber structures is first explained, and basic knowledge of time-dependent deformations, creep and predictive models is reviewed. The next chapters discuss the sensitivity of creep to different environments, deformation kinetics, mechano-sorptive creep, time-dependent slip of joints and creep testing of wooden structural components. The last two chapters summarize the variation of moisture in timber and creep analysis of timber structures. Priority research needs are identified and an appendix reviews national building code creep factors. The book will be invaluable for researchers in the field of wood mechanics and timber engineering, and for engineers in the timber industry and technical centres throughout the world.