Lateral buckling of wood composite I-joists as a mechanism causing falls from elevation.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bamberg CR ; Hindman DP ; Timko PD
• Description:
  Wood composite I-joists are common materials used for floor and roof joists in residential construction. The shape of I-joists reduces the amount of wood fiber required to carry vertically applied loads. However, these joists have low stiffness in the lateral and torsional directions, requiring bracing by sheathing and additional bridging elements. During construction, workers may walk on these I-joists and induce lateral buckling,which could lead to worker falls. Walking loads contain both vertical and horizontal loading components which could induce lateral buckling. The purpose of this paper was to explore the loading and deflection of workers walking on unbraced I-joists to see if lateral buckling was initiated. A safety platform allowed workers to walk on unbraced I-joists safely. Measurements of the horizontal load and deflection of the top flange at mid span showed increasing load and deflection due to increased worker static weight, respectively. Differences in the load and deflection were observed between I-joists of different lengths and manufacturers. The phenomenon of lateral buckling may be more serious for overweight workers since the addition of horizontal load decreases the vertical load needed for buckling,and increased deflection may increase the tendency of workers to fall from unbraced joists.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Mining Occupational Health Safety Toxicology
• Keywords:
  Accident-potential Accidents Construction Construction-industry Construction-materials Construction-workers Exposure-levels Fall-protection Humans Injuries Men Risk-factors Safety-measures Traumatic-injuries Weight-factors Women Wood Workers

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• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Conference/Symposia Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  146-149
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043621
• Citation:
  Research and Practice for Fall Injury Control in the Workplace: Proceedings of International Conference on Fall Prevention and Protection. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2012-103, 2011 Nov; :146-149
• Contact Point Address:
  Daniel P. Hindman, Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech, 1650 Ramble Road, Blacksburg, VA 24061
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070801
• Source Full Name:
  Research and Practice for Fall Injury Control in the Workplace: Proceedings of International Conference on Fall Prevention and Protection
• End Date:
  20100731
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bc0731ca36c357c4b9b6f9c027d27d2500477b35b83c17148e0948b75815d1915563efd6cc6daebecc7e04366f82aad7d9bcdc3b851b54b227a5025620f5de50
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181641/cdc_181641_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 556.37 KB ]