Mathematical model for timber decay in contact with the ground adjusted for the State of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

At this moment, the environmental sustainability has been incorporated to all branches of activity more and more; timber seems to be the best alternative in civil construction. Nevertheless, for a correct and better usage of timber as a structural material, it is necessary to have a higher degree of knowledge not only of the structural mechanical behavior, but also about its durability and service life. With help from mathematical models the service life of the timber structures can be foreseen, by obtaining the "Climate Indices", that show comparatively among the studied regions, which ones have a higher or lesser propensity of being attacked by fungi. In this paper, utilizing climatologic data from several cities of the State of São Paulo - Brazil was determined through numerical analysis and statistics, the simplification of one aggressive model to timber in contact with the ground, being this model adjusted to the State of São Paulo. The simplified model of timber degradation can be used to quantity the effect of the environment in the process of decay for the regional climatic conditions. © 2010.