Shear Strength Parallel to Grain for Selected Malaysian Tropical Timber According to BS EN408

Abstract

In order to develop shear strength data for limit state design as stated in Eurocode 5, the strength properties need to be determined using large size structural specimens. However, the specific data for Malaysian tropical hardwood were not available for the moment. Thus, shear strength parallel to the grain for structural specimens from seven Malaysian tropical hardwood timbers was determined in this research. The timber species were selected from different strength group (SG) according to MS 544: Part 2. The timber species studied were Balau (Shorea spp.), Kempas (Koompassia malaccensis), Resak (Cotylelobium spp.), Keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.), Mengkulang (Heritiera simplicifolia), Light Red Meranti (Shorea leprosula) and Geronggang (Cratoxylum aborescens). The strength determination of the specimens was carried out according to the BS EN408. The nominal dimension of the specimen was 33 mm in thickness, 56 mm in width and 303 mm in length. The loading rate was set at 0.6–1.2 mm/min for all the specimens to achieve failure during the time stipulated in the standard. The results show that Kempas (SG 2) has the highest shear strength which is 6.46 N/mm2. On the other hand, Resak (SG 4) exhibits the lowest shear strength which is 3.04 N/mm2. It is worth noting that, the values of shear strength for this study are higher compared to the values of shear strength from MS 544: Part 2 and MS 544: Part 3. To better justify the results, further testing is needed for more timbers species with a higher number of replicates.