Tensile strength class system for Malaysian hardwoods according to European standards EN 384 and EN 408 / Nurul Izzatul Lydia Za‘Ba

Timber has been widely used as load-bearing building elements such as roof trusses, beams and columns subjected to tensile, shear, bending and compression loading. In order to design such structural system, the strength properties of a timber need to precisely determined. Currently, in Malaysia, the strength properties are based on MS 544 which were determined by grade stresses of small clear specimens. However, in Europe and partly in North America, the concept of grade stresses of small clear specimens has been abandoned and new approach involving determination of characteristic values in structural sized specimens has been introduced to produce more accurate data for structural timber design purpose. Glue laminated timber (GLT) is now the most versatile engineered structural timber products produced in many countries. In order to produced GLT, information on characteristic tensile strength is used. Therefore, there is need to establish the tensile strength data for Malaysian timber based on characteristic values as data in EN 338 are specially mention to be used for softwood timber only. Nine species namely Balau, Kempas, Kapur, Kelat, Resak, Keruing, Mengkulang, Light Red Meranti and Geronggang, varied from strength group (SG) 1 to SG 7 were chosen from region Kelantan, Pahang, Johor and Sarawak to perform tension test in both small and structural sized specimens.