The Bearing Strength Capacity of Continuous Supported Timber Beams - a unified approach for test methods and structural design codes

Bearing or compressive strength capacity perpendicular to the grain of timber beams is a troublesome issue. Not only do many different load cases occur in practice that are not covered by structural timber design codes but also these codes provide only a basic provision and vary throughout continents. Code design rules require the standardized compressive or bearing strength to be determined by test standards. An assessment of the results of standard test methods of the European Union, North America and Australia/New Zealand show incompatibility. It is demonstrated how previously incompatible results can be made compatible by using a physical model and some calibration tests. The model proposed offers a consistent and simple way to bridge the differences between both test standards and structural design codes. When the model is implemented in structural design codes, the designer will simply be able to calculate more accurately the bearing capacity, using any standard compressive strength, derived with whatever standard test method.