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Wood Design Manual

The Wood Design Manual is the Canadian reference on the design of timber structures, under gravity and lateral loadings, according to Part 4 of the National Building Code of Canada (NBC) and the “Engineering design in wood” standard (CSA O86). It provides guidance and design examples on sawn and engineered wood members, their connections and fire design. The most common design situations encountered by practicing engineers are covered through intuitive Selection Tables. In addition, the Wood Design Manual contains the latest CSA O86 Standard, as well as a technical commentary written by timber design experts including members of the Standard’s technical committee.

The 2020 Wood Design Manual includes a copy of the CSA O86:19 Standard, incorporating Update No.3 – July 2021. The main changes in this edition are:

  1. Updates to NBC 2020, including guidance on the new “transient live load” in serviceability load combinations.
  2. New sawn lumber joist vibration tables, based on the new vibration design method in O86:19 Annex A.
  3. Updated bending and tension tables for Hem-Fir beam and stringer grade, based on the changes in Hem-Fir design values in O86:19.
  4. Updated CLT deflection tables, based on the removal of the 1.2 form factor in O86:19.
  5. Updated CLT combined loading tables, again, based on the removal of the 1.2 form factor in O86:19.
  6. Improved bolt tables that can be directly used to obtain bolt resistances and failure modes.
  7. Updated shearwall and diaphragm selection tables based on the new alternative f1 equation.
  8. Updated design example of CLT shearwall to account for O86:19 additional provisions and provides design and deflection expressions for multi-panel CLT shearwalls.

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