At the institute of structural engineering at the ETH Zurich multiple of investigations are conducted to analyse the material properties of Norway spruce timber boards. The investigations are part of the research project “Influence of varying material properties on the load bearing capacity of glued laminated timber (glulam)”. The majority of the investigations are non-destructively.
The investigations are taking place on 400 timber boards. On all specimens the moisture content, the density, the Eigenfrequency and the longitudinal ultrasonic runtime was investigated. Further all knots with a diameter larger then 10mm are measured. Thereby the position and the size of all the knots are documented. Subsequently on 200 selected boards non-destructive tensile test are performed to analyse the local young modulus. Herewith it was particularly focused on the investigation of the stiffness of areas having knots or knot clusters and areas without knots. The strains are measured with an optical coordinatemeasurement device. In the last part of the experimental investigation the deformation and failure behaviour of significant knot clusters is analysed. The strains are measured with digital image correlation.
Focus of the entire experimental analysis was the investigation of the young modulus and the quantifications of its variability within timber members and between timber members. Within this study a database was produced to evaluate existing test methods for the estimation of the young modulus. Further, the results can be used as a basis for further investigations on the variability of structural timber.