Design of Wooden Trusses

Abstract

In this chapter, the use of wood products as truss members is treated. The advantages and disadvantages of wooden trusses are first discussed. It is common knowledge that wooden trusses can be fabricated in a nearly infinite number of sizes and shapes. Hence, some of the common truss shapes are discussed and illustrated. This is followed by discussions on the computation of joint loads for roof trusses, truss analysis, i.e. how to determine the magnitude of the tensile and compressive forces in the truss members, and, lastly, truss design, i.e. how to calculate the stresses and select member sizes and suitable timber grades, having determined the forces on each truss member. The chapter is concluded with worked examples on truss analysis and design using the methods of resolution at joints tension coefficient-solved using the in-built inverse and matrix multiplication functions of Microsoft Excel.