Stability and Bracing of Parallel-Chord Wood Trusses

Designers usually employ conservative methods of determining truss bracing requirements. If a failure should occur, the presence or absence of specified bracing is often at issue. If bracing is less than specified, the question arises as to whether or not the bracing that was present was sufficient. This implies that some other feature of the truss was deficient which cannot be determined using conservative methods. Equations are presented in this paper to permit more realistic estimates of real critical buckling loads for wood trusses. These equations are reasonably precise for one common type of wood truss, but still conservative for other common types. The paper also describes the effect of top chord misalignment on resulting bracing forces and the importance of lateral support of bottom chord ends. Current practices for estimating bracing forces of well-aligned trusses are confirmed. The results should be useful in reviewing failures and in designing adequate lateral bracing.

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