Characterization of Radial Stress in Curved Beams

Curved glued laminated timber (glulam) is rapidly coming into the domestic modern timber frame buildings and predominant in building construction. The radial stress is frequently occurred in curved beams and is a critical design parameter in curved glulam. Three models, Wilson equation, Exact solution and Approximation equation were introduced to determine the radial stress of curved glulam under pure bending condition. It is obvious that radial stress distribution between small radius and large radius was different due to slight change of neutral plane location to center line. If the beam design with extremely small radius, it should be considered to determine the exact location of maximum radial stress. The current standard KSF 3021 was reviewed and would be considered some adjustment determining the optimum radius in curved glulam. Current design principle is that the stress factor is given by the curvature term only in constant depth of the beam, but like tapered or small radius of beams, the stress factor by Wilson equation was underestimated. So current design formula should be considered to improvement for characterizing the radial stress factor under pure bending condition.