Strength Properties of Chestnut Structural Timber with Wane

Grading of timber for structural purposes allows material with similar physical and mechanical properties to be grouped together. The groups are defined by specific strength values and indicate the basic working stresses and stiffnesses to be used for structural design purposes. In particular, visual strength grading bases the assignment of each timber element to a grade on the characteristics that are visually measurable (i.e. knots, slope of grain, annual ring width). Very similar principles are implemented for the in situ assessment of timber structures, as recommended for example by the Italian standard UNI 11119, that specifies the procedures for the diagnosis of timber members. Currently, however, European standards and most of the national standards on strength grading refer to timber elements with rectangular cross section, while in existing buildings, members with irregular cross section are extremely common. Thus, 10 different provenances (5 from Italy and 5 from France) of chestnut timber were sampled. More than 600 structural elements with wane were visually examined in laboratory and all the characteristics were collected. Bending tests were then performed on each timber element until failure, and bending strength, as well as modulus of elasticity and density, were determined. Here, the limitations for the main strength-reducing characteristics and the characteristic values (fifth percentile for bending strength and density and the mean value for modulus of elasticity) of chestnut timber with wane are presented.