e2–WoodS Enhancing Engineering Analysis of Wooden Structures

Abstract Increasing life-quality request and environmental-sustainability represent huge challenges that are inducing deep changes in building industry. As an example, the diffusion of glued laminated timber that applies modern industrial process to renewable materials allows to build green and efficient structures, providing effective answers to nowadays needs. Unfortunately, severe gaps in structural modeling prevent engineers from an optimal design, vanishing benefits coming from materials properties. In fact, standard structural-design models allow coarse approximation only. On the other hand, existing accurate analysis tools often result too expensive for practical applications. The project aims at proposing innovative and robust tools that could fill the modeling gap and support engineers in wooden-structure design as well as in other applicative fields. For these purposes, the project will combine the co-applicants experience in woodmaterial analysis and modeling and the applicants knowledge of enhanced and efficient structural modeling. The proposed modeling procedure will be capable to take adequatelly into account both the material properties and the complex phenomena that occur within buildings. Furthermore, the obtained model should be as accurate as existing accurate analysis tools but it should be significantly more economical.

Increasing life-quality request and environmental-sustainability represent huge challenges that are leading to deep changes in building industry. As an example, the diffusion of glued laminated timber that applies modern industrial process to renewable materials allows to build green and efficient structures, providing effective answers to nowadays needs. Unfortunately, severe gaps in structural modeling prevent engineers from an optimal design, entailing to the consequent vanishing benefits coming from materials properties. In fact, standard structural-design models allow coarse approximation only. On the other hand, existing accurate analysis tools often result too expensive for practical applications. The project proposed innovative and robust tools that could fill the modeling gap and support engineers in wooden-structure design as well as in other applicative fields. For these purposes, the project combined the co-applicants experience in woodmaterial analysis and modeling and the applicants expertise in enhanced and efficient structural modeling. The proposed modeling procedure is capable to adequately take into account both the material properties and the complex phenomena that occur within buildings. Furthermore, the obtained model is as accurate as existing accurate analysis tools but it is significantly more economical.