Conventional Lumber Decking: Effect of Board Sizes

摘要

The introduction of stress laminated lumber decks has helped in the elimination of the problems associated with conventional lumber decks. However, there are thousands of conventional lumber decks that will continue to require maintenance. In some other instances, some of these conventional wood bridges may be kept as historical landmarks. One problem that needs attention on these conventional lumber decks is the one caused by dimensional instability of lumber, when used in a varying environmental condition. Proper material selection and proper board placement may help in minimizing the effect of these dimensional instabilities. However, when we have wetting from one side only, there is a cupping tendency regardless of material selection and placement. In this paper results of a study aimed at the determination of forces developed during the cupping of lumber subjected to uni-directional wetting are presented. The forces developed during cupping depends on the depth and width of the lumber.