Assessment and Retrofitting of

Existing Timber Structures

Spannbandbrücke Essing – Stress ribbon bridge, 190 m.

Jan-Willem van de Kuilen
Andreas Rais
Andriy Kovryga
Max Westermayr

1
Paris, April 15-16th 2019

2
Paris, April 15-16th 2019

3
Lecture overview

4
TUM - Moodle

5
Lecture series goals:

- Timber as structural element in existing structures

- How to assess the material and the structure
- Performing an assessment on the safety and functionality
- Learn about inspection and repair techniques
- Learn about strengthening techniques
- Historical timber connections

- Awareness of cultural heritage!

- See document of course attainments

6
Course attainments

7
 Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Timber Structures

What is so special about timber structures?

• Structures often belong to cultural heritage…
• It is not only about safety…
• It is much more difficult to address…
• It is often impossible to quantify…

• Engineering skills (including judgement!) are

required

• But these are not enough…

Napoli, church in use by

the university
8
 Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Timber Structures

• Timber structures belong to the oldest structures in

the built environment. Their age can be up to 10
centuries in Europe and in Asia. Often such structures
need to be evaluated for ´modern day´ requirements.

• In order to perform such an evaluation, the structure

needs to be assessed for a number of issues dealing
with material properties (origin, consistency, sawn
timber, glued laminated timber, etc.), biological,
physical, chemical and mechanical degradation (aging
phenomena), strength and stiffness, etc.

• A number of techniques are available for this

assessment, with different levels of effectiveness and
´predictive quality´

9
 Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Timber Structures

• In a second step, the evaluation requires the development

of an intervention program, with analysis, repair and
retrofitting options to be developed and applied, partly
depending on the future use of the structure.
• An analysis of the future use, the social-cultural value of
the building and the required structural safety is needed.
• Monitoring, prediction of remaining service life with possible
future interventions needs to be planned
• Social and economical aspects are issues that need to be
addressed, where quantification of these aspects is difficult
as they are highly subjective.

10
 Most countries have national cultural heritage organizations
They deal with archeology, the cultural landscape and monuments
National bodies (often > 100 years old) https://english.cultureelerfgoed.nl/
• protection of cultural heritage
• give subsidies for maintenance
• promotes and performs scientific activities & research
What is a monument?
• beauty, scientific or cultural / historical importance (and 50 years old)
• In NL about 48.000 buildings and structures are 'rijksmonument' (Delft: 750!)
• Bayerischer Schlösserverwaltung:
https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisch/palace/index.htm

• Definition: Heritage protection is the protection, conservation, maintenance and

repair of immovable property of general interest due to its historical, folklore, artistic,
scientific, industrial-archaeological or other socio-cultural value.

11

restauraties
Salzstadel Regensbrug
(not part of Bavarian
Palace Administration
/ Schlösserverwaltung)

12
Old timber structures…. Church
´Oude Jan´
Delft, Bell
tower

Church in
Sloten,
Friesland

Church ´Oude Jan´ Delft

Stave church, Norway

13
Salzstadel - Regensburg

14
…and not so old timber structures…. Glued laminated structures: degradation of
glue, surface cracks, delamination…

Sports hall,
Italy
Ice stadium, Bad Reichenhall

Supermarket,
Germany
Bomencentrum, Baarn, NL
15
Spannbandbrücke Essing – Stress ribbon bridge, 190 m.

Original design: spruce glulam

Repair after 25 years: glulam spruce columns replaced by
sawn timber azobé (bongossi) columns

16
 Timber structures with different risks of ‘degradation’.

Group a: timber houses Exercise 1:

Identify risks for these structures
Each group has ´sub´groups!

Group b: sawn timber and glulam structures

17
Group c: bridges and hydraulic structures
Degradation can be physical,
Vermelding onderdeel organisatie mechanical, chemical and biological
18
Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Timber Structures

• ISO Standard 13822 Bases for design of structures —

Assessment of existing structures

• ISO Standard 2394 General principles on reliability for

structures

• EN 1990 / 1991 Eurocode 0-1 – Basis of Design & Loads

• EN 1995 Eurocode 5 – Timber structures

19
 Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing
Timber Structures
Introduction (ISO 13822)

The continued use of existing structures is of great importance because the

built environment is a huge economic and political asset, growing larger
every year.

The assessment of existing structures is now a major engineering task. The

structural engineer is increasingly called upon to devise ways for extending
the life of structures whilst observing tight cost constraints.

The establishment of principles for the assessment of existing structures is

required because it is based on an approach that is substantially different
from design of new structures and requires knowledge beyond the scope of
design codes.

20
 Service life modelling of timber structures
(based on ISO Standard 13822)

This document is intended not only as a statement of principals and

procedures for the assessment of existing structures but also as a guide for
use by structural engineers and clients.

Engineers can apply specific methods for assessment in order to save

structures and to reduce a client's expenditure. The ultimate goal is to limit
construction intervention to a strict minimum, a goal that is clearly in
agreement with the principles of sustainable development.

The basis for the reliability assessment is contained in the performance

requirements for safety and serviceability of ISO 2394. Economic, social and
sustainability considerations, however, result in a greater differentiation in
structural reliability for the assessment of existing structures than for the
design of new structures.

21
 Example of a historic case:
Basic housing system in Bryggen, (Bergen, Norway)
Norway.

UNESCO,
https://whc.unesco.
org/en/list/59/

Old city,
Wet climate.
Rain and high
relative humidity,
Timber houses

22
 Climate variation in Bergen
temperature and relative humidity

Bergen climate (30 year average)

30.0 100.0
25.0 90.0
20.0 80.0

Relative humidity (%)

15.0 70.0
Temperature (C)

10.0 60.0
5.0 50.0
0.0 mar. 40.0

may.
jan.

apr.

jun.

jul.

sep.

oct.

nov.

dec.
aug.
feb.

-5.0 30.0
-10.0 20.0
Average high Average low
-15.0 Warmest ever Coldest ever 10.0
Average dew point Relative humidity
-20.0 0.0
Month

23
Basic housing system in Bryggen

24
Foundation system is a system of crosswise placed logs in the
ground, without any protection
25
Inside there are wooden
floors….

26
… which are susceptible to decay of course!
27
Half-timbered houses…

28
Royal Palace in Amsterdam: 13659 wooden
piles in the foundation, opened in 1665.
29
 Venice also has wooden pile
foundations…

…but in a different style:

short piles, extremely
close together.

30
 and so have
Rotterdam,
Dordrecht, Leiden,
Haarlem…

Many of them have slightly

different styles, shapes,
species , etc.

31
or Hamburg… New York, Boston, San Francisco…

Speicherstadt,
Hamburg
wikimedia

32
Inspection:

• What do you need to do?

33
Inspection:
• Provide information needed by the structural engineer to assess if the
strength and the stiffness of members and connections are satisfactory
for the intended use
• Point out parts which may need specific reinforcement, substition, or
other types of intervention
• Evaluate decay factors which may have affected the structure (in part or
in whole) and which may affect it in the future,
• To identify appropriate, remedial measures to prevent such risks from
recurring
• To cooperate toward the identification of the structural behaviour of the
construction work,
• In case of structures having historical artistic or cultural value, to
cooperate towards a better knowledge of its history, manufacturing
techniques, building technology etc.

34
To achieve these goals:
The wood technologist is called in to:

• Assess the timber quality, ascertain the wood species and ist main
physical and mechanical properties, including defects and anomalies
• To detect existing decay or damage suffered in service
• Assess the risk of decay or damage in the future (also taking into
account possible effects of planned measures!)
• Assess the effective cross section(s),, their strength and stiffness
characteristics
• Assess the quality and load bearing cpacity and stiffness of connections.

35
Inspection:
- Mapping of the structure
-structural assesment, timber quality (grade), cracks, strength
and stiffness

- Assessment of parts that need to be changed

- Assessment of decay mechanisms
-Decayed elements, risk of future decay, advice

- Assesment of cultural values

-History, special techniques, paintings, doors, stairsways, etc…

36
 Floor boards

Secondary
Floor boards beam

Main beam Main beam Plate

Wall
support

Floor boards

Main beam
Plate Secondary
Strut beam

Wall plate

37
A. Main beams
B. Wall rib
C. Floor structure:
1. Main beam
2. Secondary beam
3. Plate
4. Strut
5. Wall plate
D. Main beams on a console
E. Main beams with a downstand
beam

Names of structural elements are

geographically bound and often
difficult to translate!

38
Use of wood species and 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800
structural types during a
number of centuries
spruce
oak
pine

single beam floors

assembled beam floors
struts assembled beam floors

spruce oak pine

39
Insects and larvae

40
Laboratory tests for insects

41
Insect damage of (oak) beams

42
Fungi

Dry rot fungus:

Serpula lacrymans
(basidiomycete)

Cellar fungus
Coniophora puteana

43
Inspection:
- Description and lay-out of structure
-Structural assesment:
-Classification: red: decayed at critical points
yellow: some decayed elements, risk for further
decay is high
green: ‘old’ decay, not critical, only generic
maintenance is required

- Previous repairs and structural interventions

- Changes in climate
-Ventilation of wooden parts, condensation problems.

- Assessment of cultural value

-History, specific historical techniques, etc.
44
Inspection (detailed):
- every beam and joint is described
- advice for strength and stiffness of elements
- wood species, defects (cracks, knots, etc.)
- moisture content
- residual cross sections (visual inspection of non-destructive
measurements)
- location of decayed elements
- location of previous interventions and changes
- advice to avoid future decay

45
Inspection techniques (detailed):
- visual (strength grading rules)
- static deflection (zero-deflection and test)
- endoscopic measurements
- X-ray, computertomography, NMR
- vibration tests (transversal/longitudinal)
- acoustic emission
- impact hammers (Pylodyn)
- drill resistance
- displacement / rotation meters
- withdrawal resistance of screws

46
 Drilling resistance

Moisture content
measurement
47
Transverse vibration test
(Stiffness estimation)

Hammer + Accelerometer
48
ComputedTomography – CT-scan
Computer tomography (CT-scanning)
upper part

lower part

yellow green blue red

low high
density
upper part knot distribution

Lower part

yellow green blue red

low high
density
Service Life Prediction: Bridges

52
Concluding…

• Introduction of the course

• Various aspects from cultural heritage Levels of
inspection
• Introduction to advanced techniques

• Exercise for understanding Terms & Definitions

• Introduction to the assignment

53