Stability Capacity and Lateral Bracing Requirements of Wood Beam-Columns

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the stability capacity and lateral bracing requirements of wood beam-columns subjected to biaxial eccentric compression loads. Material property tests and wood beam-column tests were conducted to provide input parameters and verification to a finite element method based numerical analysis model. The model provided good predictions of the maximum compression load, midspan lateral deflection and lateral bracing force of the wood beam-columns. A parametric study was conducted for the effect of the lateral bracing stiffness, load eccentricity and initial lateral deflections. The adequacy of the 2% rule-of-thumb, Winter’s and Plaut’s methods was also studied by comparing to the test results of the lateral bracing force. The developed model and its output can be used to improve the design methods of the lateral bracing systems of wood beam-columns.