Effect of Age and/or Load on Timber Strength: Does Time and/or Load Damage Timber

摘要

The paper describes a number of tests carried out in the Stevin Laboratories Delft on timber, on joints and on trusses. Much of the material and of the structural elements was loaded for longer or shorter periods to different load levels, sometimes within normal structures (RAI-building, Amsterdam; steamloc shed, Arnhem), or in the laboratory. Although the subsequent investigations served preliminary other purposes, they were brought together here to demonstrate that from all these tests there is no real evidence that preloading of timber or timber structures to a limited load level has produced any damage.