You'll have to transform the wood to steel or the steel to wood. You need to have all pieces as the same material to have I be of any use to you. I like to make everything steel. Find the modular raio, n=Es/Ew. Make the thickness of the wood equal to the actual thickness divided by n. The just find I like you would any other section - assuming the centerlines are at rhe same depth it's just (bh3)/12.
These types of beams derive most of it's strength from the steel plates with the wood members providing bracing to prevent buckling of the steel plates. If you search the posts for “Flitch” you will find a thread “Flitch plate beam design help” with some information about this.
I always wondered about the true definition of "flitch". I've heard it described both as wood sandwiching a steel plate and steel plate sandwiching wood.
In your professional opinion, is there truly a difference?
Personally, I don't think so, since the wood is depending on the steel plate in either scenario for added strength and moment of inertia.
Rittz, I think you should thank these guys for being nice to you during the christmas season. This is a third year engineering question, and I am a little concerned.
I think that "flitch" derives from "fleche", or feather. The flitch is the thin or thinner thing.
I would not be confident that an outside plate on an inside wood beam would be prevented from wrinkling unless I did a bunch of work about wrinkling or buckling.
