Tapered Wood Utility Poles

[msquared48]

Josh:

Looked in our RISA manual, but could not find anything on tapered member input for wood poles. Does RISA have any function for that, or do I have to use the sectionalized approach with more nodes for the pole?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Sectionalized approach where you break the member up into smaller prismatic pieces. The smaller the length of the section used the better the approximation of the taper.

FWIW: we did a study a number of years ago that suggested breaking up an individual member into 14 total pieces provided sufficient analysis accuracy for any weird load condition. The AISC design guide on tapered members suggests that you can get away with even fewer sections (6 sections being sufficient for most cases and 10 sections being sufficient for the worst case situations).

 

[msquared48]

Thanks Josh.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering