Test-piece size for uniformly distributed and concentrated load performance assessment of wood floor panels

Title: Test-piece size for uniformly distributed and concentrated load performance assessment of wood floor panels
Author(s): W. H. Thomas
Paper category : journal
Serial title: Materials and Structures
Abreviated Serial title: Mater. Struct.
ISSN: 1359-5997
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Volume: 37
Issue: 274
Issue date: 2004-12-01
Publication year: 2004
Pages: 732 - 739
Total Pages: 8
Nb references: 14
Language: English

Abstract: An examination of North American and European test floors for determination of uniform and concentrated load performances of wood joist floor panels shows that there is a wide variation in the required width to span aspect ratio (1.
5 to 8.
0) of the test floors.
Although the test floors are intended to replicate real floors, there is a minimum width to span aspect ratio that is sufficient to simulate both uniform and concentrated load performances of floor panels.
The minimum width to span aspect ratio is conservatively the effective width to span ratio of a one-way spanning plate model of the floor panel.
A parametric study of the effective widths in bending of simply supported, fixed and continuous plate one-way models of floor panels has been carried out.
An equation for the effective width of the models in terms of the span, thickness and mechanical properties has been derived.
Theoretically, the upper bound of the effective width is of the order of 2.
0 times the span.
Subject to experimental validation, the derived effective width equation is recommended for specifying the size of test piece for determination of uniformly distributed and/or concentrated load performance of wood joist floor panels.

Online publication: 2004-10-17
Classification: Scientific Reports
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00
doi: 10.1617/13971