Moisture induced stresses perpendicular to the grain in glulam : Review and evaluation of the relative importance of models and parameters

Stresses perpendicular to the grain arising from moisture changes might cause cracks and thereby severely affect the load bearing capacity and serviceability of timber structures. The present paper reviews parameters and mathematical models commonly applied for numerical simulation of moisture-induced stresses in glulam members. The basis of the calculations is a hygro-mechanical model coupled with a moisture transport model. Several models and ranges of parameters reported in the literature are compared and the significance of the parameter selection is evaluated. It was found that geometrical properties as well as material parameters have a significantly stronger effect on the outcome of the simulations than the selection of a certain numerical formulation of mechanosorption.