Home Secretary's Corner Secretary’s Corner – September 2020 – Sara Buerstinghaus

Secretary’s Corner – September 2020 – Sara Buerstinghaus

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Welcome back, SEAoT Houston/Gulf Coast. Summer is over and our fall meetings are kicking now that September is here.

For our June meeting Lori Koch with AWC presented “The Fasteners and The Furious”.

Lori introduced the different types of fasteners and NDS design provisions. She explained that if a fastener has a proprietary design not included in a standard, the designer needs an evaluation report to determine appropriate design values. She then discussed design considerations per NDS chapter 12 tabulated values as well as the assumptions required to calculate the design values.

She continued with a discussion on the philosophy for designing wood connections and how improper design causes wood splits. Splitting happens because wood is relatively weak perpendicular to grain. If a designer spaces nails too closely, it is going to cause splitting. Staggering is recommended to avoid splitting. She presented a few examples of the correct way of using staggered nailing. This subject is discussed in detail in the commentary of Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS).

She also briefly discussed prefabricated connectors, as well as timber rivets, which are described in NDS chapter 14. She concluded the presentation with some wood connection detailing requirements and design examples.

I encourage you to join any of our next meetings and be part of enhancing SEAoT Houston/Gulf Coast.

See you at our next meeting!