Transverse Stiffener Beams in Longitudinally Nail Laminated Timber Decks

Project summary:

Nails alone do not provide efficient and sustainable load sharing and distribution between the wood laminations in the LNL timber deck. This condition is responsible for early in-service deterioration of transverse shear and bending strength capacity of the bridge deck. This research will develop analysis and design methods that will enable effective use of TSB?s to strengthen load sharing attributes between the nails and the longitudinal wood plank that make up the LNL bridge deck. The research will be conducted in four development phases:(1) Analysis of shear load transfer characteristics of nails connecting adjacent timber laminations. (2) Choice of theory and modeling concepts for the LNL deck and TSB, and implementation of the computer code by the Finite Element Method. (3) Validation of model using performance data of a real deck. (4) Sensitivity analysis to determine critical design parameters under practical design situations. (5) Modifying anchorage design of TSB to allow more sustainable performance as a load sharing enhancement component.