Safety evaluation of a timber Warren truss hangar

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary test results of a destructive testing of a full-size wooden Warren truss hangar located at Canadian Forces Base Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada. A total of 16 Warren trusses were tested to failure (1) to determine the structural safety of the damaged and repaired timber structure, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of the repair scheme and (3) to investigate the proposed repair scheme and reinforcement needed to restore the damaged members or joints and thus the structure to full capacity. Test results, based on load carrying performance, showed that the average failure load of the trusses was greater than the design ultimate load and that serviceability requirements were adequate and acceptable for all but one truss tested. While experimental evidence did not verify the significance of the influence of the post-tensioning process, it was found that gusset plate reinforcement at the joints had beneficial effects by increasing the load carrying capacities of the trusses by a marked margin.