Many highway and other rural bridges must be repleced to maintain the transportation infrastructure. Project outcomes have included development of standard design construction plans with specifications that cover 18-90 foot span bridge structures. Project efforts have shown that less desirable hardwood for appearance market end-uses may be effectively fabricated into high performance glulam for bridge and other structural applications. Current project activities include development of glulam deck plans for rehabilitation of steel girder bridge superstructures.
Elasticity refers to material deformation behavior under applied force.
Materials under investigation include various EWP's in the form of composite lumber. Study goals are intended to better characterize the elasticity compliance terms that describe composite lumber behavior. Characterization of elasticity compliance terms are vital to conduct stress state analysis. Better characterization of lumber composite material constants are essential for more advanced finite element model techniques to verify system performance and promote efficient structural designs. An experimental study has been instituted to investigate the role of epoxy resin to improve the observed performance of innovative timber joinery connections.