Onsite assessment of structural timber members by means of hierarchical models and probabilistic methods

Abstract

a b s t r a c tOne of the main motivations for hierarchical modeling is to understand how properties, composition and structure at lower scale levels may influence and be used to predict the material properties at macroscopic and structural engineering scales. Structural timber is, in most cases, characterized by three parameters usually designated as reference properties: density, bending modulus of elasticity and bending strength.The present paper addresses a review on different possibilities for obtaining reliable data about the mechanical behavior of timber elements by collecting information at different levels and by organizing that information into a hierarchy of sequential levels (from lowest to highest). The applicability and limitations of statistic and probabilistic methods on the prediction and inference of timber's reference material properties are discussed and exemplified.

A review on the mechanical properties of aged wood and salvaged timber

“…Moreover, the combination of methods should consider the mechanical property that is being assessed, as well as the size scale of the analysis [51]. Nevertheless, it is common to use nondestructive methods to assess the residual cross-section and also durability related issues (e.g.…”

Assessment of heritage timber structures: Review of standards, guidelines and procedures

“…The application of one or more of the above mentioned approaches depends on the specific case (i.e., type of structure, accessibility, etc.). Different statistical approaches can be used to combine information obtained from different scales and sources, for the prediction of value, variation and distribution of updated parameters [43]; [44]; [45].…”

Reliability-based design of interventions in deteriorated timber structures

“…In this case, the parameters that define the probability distributions must be estimated with care. To this end, Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood estimations have been applied with success (Faber et al 2014;Sousa et al 2015Sousa et al , 2016b. Correlation analyses and statistical tests have also been used while discussion about the applicability of interval estimation instead of point estimation methods to determine the distribution parameters has been provided in Jenkel et al (2015).…”

“…A review on the onsite assessment of structural timber members by means of hierarchical models and probabilistic methods is also provided in Sousa et al (2015) where the applicability and limitations of statistic and probabilistic methods on the prediction and inference of timber's reference material properties are discussed and exemplified.…”