1,065
Views
17
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Moisture-induced stresses in large glulam beams. Case study: Vihantasalmi Bridge

, &
Pages 366-380 | Received 16 Mar 2019, Accepted 28 Jun 2019, Published online: 09 Jul 2019
 

ABSTRACT

The structural performance of timber elements may depend on the environmental conditions and in particular on the cyclic variations of the moisture content. Moisture gradients in the sections of the structural elements can produce additional stresses, the so-called moisture-induced stresses (MIS), which can cause the formation of cracks and delamination in wooden components. In order to achieve a reliable evaluation of the safety level of timber structures, the present paper proposes a numerical methodology to evaluate the MIS in glulam beams of timber bridges under Northern European climates and mechanical loads. A hygro-thermal multi-Fickian model for prediction of moisture content, relative humidity and temperature in wood is sequentially coupled with an orthotropic-viscoelastic-mechanosorptive model for calculation of wood stresses. Both models were developed by some of the authors in Abaqus FEM code in previous works and their coupling is used here to analyse the hygro-thermo-mechanical response of a glulam beam of Vihantasalmi Bridge in Finland under bending loads. Both perpendicular and parallel to grain MIS in a beam section sheltered from rain are evaluated during a 10-year analysis and conclusions on the crack risk related to these stresses are given.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Alessandro Musci from University of Brescia for his collaborations on some topics related to this work during his MSc stage at VTT. Special thanks are due to Lauri Salokangas from Aalto University who provided the monitoring data and literature about Vihantasalmi Bridge.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by WoodWisdom-Net+ project DuraTB (Durable Timber Bridges).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 182.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.