Time-Dependent Service-Load Behavior of Wood Floors: Experimental Results

Abstract

It is well known that wood exhibits continued additional creep deflection under long-term load. Differential creep behavior among joists, sheathing material, and connection details in a wood joist floor system can affect the system performance of the assembly over time. For example, if the flexural stiffness of the partial composite T-sections consisting of wood joists and sheathing changes continuously over time, the deflection response of the wood assembly would obviously be affected. The objective of this research was to investigate the time-dependent behavior of wood floor systems within the service-load range as defined by time-dependent deflection behavior and time-dependent load-distribution behavior. The specific focus of this paper is on experimental tests and observations.