Reliability-Based Service Life Prediction of an Ancient Timber Structure

Fungi decay is a main factor which affects the resistance of timber structures by reducing the strength of wood and the geometrical properties of structural lumber. In order to search for scientific method to protect the Chinese ancient timber structures the following works are implemented in the paper. Firstly, the decay depth models are calibrated by using the in-site testing data. Then the resistance of timber beam and column are deduced. Subsequently the reliability theory is proposed to predict the residual life of an ancient timber structure. Finally the main structural members are selected to predict the structural residual life. The result indicates that the resistances of timber structural element are degenerated by fungi decay obviously, and the residual life of historic timber structures can be predicted effectively by the proposed method in the paper.