A design method for bearing stresses in wood

The paper points out that the present method used to design bearing plates for wood subjected to stresses perpendicular to the grain is inadequate because it neglects the effect of the specific geometry. A design method that more correctly reflects the actual conditions is presented together with test data that represent the material properties in a more realistic way.The design method is discussed and compared with limit states design and design examples are presented. The method includes a conservative estimate of the deflections.