Design Nailed and Wood Screwed Connections with Spreadsheet - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Architects and Surveyors

Design Nailed and Wood Screwed Connections with Spreadsheet

Course Outline

This course summarizes the major factors involved in the design of nailed and screwed wood connections loaded laterally, in withdrawal and in a combination of the two. An Excel© 2003 spreadsheet is provided that determines the allowable load for a nailed or screwed connection based on the type of loading and the member properties. The use of the spreadsheet is illustrated with seven 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:

The student will appreciate some of the complexities involved in the design of nailed and screwed wood connections.
The student will gain increased understanding of how wood density and dowel bearing strength relates to nail and screw wood connection capacity.
The student will gain increased understanding of the use of the duration of load stress adjustment factor in wood connection design.
The student will gain understanding in determining and combining wood stress adjustment factors.
The student will gain knowledge of the recommended spacing of nails and screws in wood connections.
The student will increase understanding of some of the properties of nails and screws as they relate to wood connections.
The student will increase understanding of the failure modes of lateral loaded nail and screw wood connections.
The student will understand how to do calculations for nails and screws loaded in lateral, withdrawal and combined loading.
The student will understand how to use the provided spreadsheet to aid in the design and analysis of nailed and screwed wood connections.

Intended Audience

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

Benefit to Attendee

Nails and screws are very common and important in wood-to-wood and steel-to-wood connections. While some prescriptive guidance in available, the amount of easily used technical detail is quite limited. The spreadsheet provided as part of the course allows the user to quickly design and analyze nailed and screw connections for a variety of situations and conditions.

Course Content

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

Design Nailed and Wood Screwed Connections with Spreadsheet (Content PDF File 2.7 MB)

NAILSCREW© 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.

You may need to download Acrobat Reader to view and print the document.

Table of Content

Introduction
Wood Properties Relevant to Connector Design
Combining Factors
Nail and Screw Spacing
Lag Screw Properties Relevant to Wood Design
Load Application
Steel Side Plates
Failure Modes and Equations
Member Failure
Using the Spreadsheet
Examples 1-7
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.