Design of Structural Elements with Tropical Hardwoods (eBook)

This book provides basic information on the design of structures with tropical woods. It is intended primarily for teaching university- and college-level courses in structural design. It is also suitable as a reference material for practitioners. Although parts of the background material relate specifically to West and East Africa, the design principles apply to the whole of tropical Africa, Latin America and South Asia. The book is laced with ample illustrations including photographs of real life wood structures and structural elements across Africa that make for interesting reading. It has numerous manual and Excel spread sheet worked examples and review questions that can properly guide a first-time designer of wooden structural elements. A number of design problems are also solved using the FORTRAN programming language. Topics covered in the thirteen chapters of the book include a brief introduction to the book, the anatomy and physical properties of tropical woods; a bri

Professor Abel Olajide Olorunnisola, formerly of the Department of Agricultural & Environmental   Engineering Faculty of Technology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, currently heads the newly created Department of Wood Products  Engineering of the same University. He holds a first degree in Agricultural Engineering and Master's and PhD in Wood Products Egineering. He has about 25 years of experinece in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Wood Products Engineering. He has been a visiting scholar to a number of universities and top research institutes in the US, England, India, and Brazil at various times. He served as the chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ibadan Branch between 2010 and 2011, and con-currently as the Dean of the Postgraduate School, University of Ibadan and the President of the Materials Science & Technology Society of Nigeria between 2010 and 2014.