Timber Beams in Historical Building Restoration Projects
Question: In historical buildings, wooden round beams (approximately 15-17 cm thick) are placed at intervals of 20-30 cm beneath the floor slab in a specific direction (e.g., x-x). Then, to counteract the deflection in beams over long spans, wooden round beams (Hezen) of 22-25 cm thickness are placed perpendicular to them (y-y direction) at wider intervals. Afterwards, a wooden floor is nailed on top. Additionally, all these beams are embedded into the walls. How can such a configuration be defined in your software?
Answer:
In the StatiCAD V6 update:
Calculations can be performed using timber material and polygon cross-section assignments.
Please review the following articles on this topic:
In the StatiCAD-Yigma V5 Pro update:
You define the floor slabs as reinforced concrete slabs, and the round beams and hezen beams as reinforced concrete rectangular beams. If there are timber columns, you also define them as rectangular reinforced concrete beams.
V5 Pro and Ultimate versions have fully integrated working capabilities with SAP2000. You can export the structural model online to SAP2000 and retrieve the analysis results (axial force, shear force, moment) performed by SAP2000 back into StatiCAD to automatically carry out wall design verifications according to the earthquake code.
After exporting the structural model to SAP2000, you can modify the cross-section (section) properties of the beams and define the material as timber with circular profiles. You can perform similar modifications for slabs and timber columns. After importing the results back into StatiCAD following these changes, the program will automatically perform wall verifications.
You may also need to separately perform the design verification of timber elements based on the SAP2000 static analysis results.
We believe there should be no issues regarding acceptance, provided you describe these modifications and procedural steps in detail in the technical report you prepare.