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Browsing by Author "Tissaoui, Jacem"

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    Effects of Long-Term Creep on the Integrity of Modern Wood Structures
    Tissaoui, Jacem (Virginia Tech, 1996-12-10)
    Short-term creep tests in tension and in compression were conducted on southern pine, Douglas-fir, yellow-poplar, and Parallam™ samples at temperatures ranging between 20 and 80° C and at 6, 9 and 12% moisture content. The principle of time-temperature superposition was applied to form a master curve that extended for a maximum of 2 years. The horizontal shift factors followed an Arrhenius relation with activation energies ranging between 75 and 130 kJ/mole. It was not possible to superpose the compliance curves at 70 and 80° C, this is attributed to the presence of multiple components in wood with different temperature dependence. Long-term creep tests were also conducted in tension and in compression at 20° C and 12% moisture content for over 2 years. The resulting compliance curves were fitted to the power law equation using a nonlinear fitting procedure. The results were compared with those of the short-term creep tests. Finite element analysis was conducted on selected wood structures to determine the effect of creep on serviceability and stability.
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    Stability analysis of the Church of the Nazarene Varax dome
    Tissaoui, Jacem (Virginia Tech, 1991)
    The object of this study is to investigate the stability of the Church of the Nazarene Varax dome under various load distributions. A model of the dome constructed using I-DEAS is presented and results of linear and nonlinear analyses are discussed. A comparison between the critical load obtained using nonlinear analysis and combined linear and nonlinear analysis is made. The model is modified to include flexible joints and bracing to model the decking. The effect of these modifications on the critical load is discussed.