Buckling of Wood Columns with Uncertain Properties

Abstract

In this study, the problem of determining the linear buckling load of wood columns with material and geometrical uncertainties under only axial static loads is considered. Argentinean Eucalyptus grandis, which is mainly cultivated in the mesopotamian provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes, is one of the most important renewable species cultivated in Argentina. The characteristic values of its mechanical properties exhibit great variability and are also dependent of knots, which are considered the most important defect affecting mechanical properties. In the present work, columns are modelled using the Bernoulli-Euler beam-column theory and are discretized by means of the finite element method. The bending stiffness field is modelled using random fields to include the variability of mechanics properties and the knot ratio influence. In this case the stochastic finite element method is used. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are used to approximate the statistics of the critical buckling load. Some numerical
results are shown and discussed.