Design Bolted Wood Connections With Spreadsheet - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Architects and Surveyors

Design Bolted Wood Connections With Spreadsheet

Course Outline

This course summarizes the major factors involved in the design of laterally loaded bolted wood connections. An Excel© 2003 spreadsheet is provided that determines the allowable lateral load on a bolted wood connection based on the bolts and the member tensile stress. The use of the spreadsheet is illustrated with five examples.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

appreciate some of the complexities involved in the design of bolted wood connections.
gain increased understanding of how wood grain direction relates to bolted wood connection capacity.
gain increased understanding of how wood density and dowel bearing strength relates to bolted wood connection capacity.
gain increased understanding of the use of the duration of load stress adjustment factor in bolted wood connection design.
gain increased understanding of the use of the group action factor in bolted wood connection design.
gain understanding in combining wood stress adjustment factors.
gain knowledge of the recommended spacing of bolts in bolted wood connections.
increase understanding of the relevance of the direction at which loads act on a bolted wood connection.
gain knowledge in the design of steel plate side members in bolted wood connections.
increase understanding of the failure modes of bolted wood connections.
understand how to use the provided spreadsheet to aid in the design and analysis of bolted wood connections.
understand how to use the spreadsheet to check the sensitivity of bolted wood connections to changes in design parameters.

Intended Audience

Structural Engineers, Architectural Engineers, Civil Engineers, and Architects.

Course Content

The course content and the spreadsheet are in the following links:

Design Bolted Wood Connections With Spreadsheet ( Content PDF File 2.5 MB)

BOLTUP© spreadsheet (Spreadsheet PDF File 52 KB. The actual Excel spreadsheet is needed to solve quiz problems and is available in the quiz)

You must have a licensed copy of Excel program to use this spreadsheet.

Analysis ToolPak needs to be installed before the Excel spreadsheet can function properly. To install the Analysis ToolPak:

1. Start Mircrosoft Excel spreadsheet program
2. On the Tools menu of Excel, click Add-Ins.
3. Select the Analysis ToolPak check box.
4. Click OK

This spreadsheet is provided for illustrative teaching purpose only, and is not intended for use in any specific project. Anyone making use of the information contained in this spreadsheet does so at his/her own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

You need to open or download above files to study this course.

Table of Content

Introduction
Wood Properties Relevant to Connector Design
Combining Factors
Bolt Properties Relevant to Wood Design
Load Application
Steel Side Plates
Failure Modes and Equations
Connecting Wood to Concrete or Masonry
Member Failure
Using the Spreadsheet
Examples 1-5
References

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.