Analysis of structural timber parts under consideration of structural inhomogeneities

Wood, as a naturally grown material, is affected by growth inhomogeneities like branches. Especially in solid timber or glulam beams, branches lead to a decrease in stiffness and strength. In this contribution, approaches to model knots and the grain course in a FE-simulation are presented. Based on these approaches, the influence of knots is evaluated in structural analyses. For validation, the numerical results are compared to experimental data. Since knots often initiate damage in structural timber parts, a failure criterion is applied in the area of knots.