TimberLife Educational Software V1.1.0
Timber has mistakenly been viewed as a less reliable construction material to steel or concrete from a durability perspective. This has arisen mainly due to the huge range of species and natural durability and treatments available, coupled with the diverse macro and micro climatic environmental considerations facing specifiers across Australia.
The TimberLife Educational Software package provides a means of estimating timber's service life performance, for the following scenarios:
- Decay in ground contact
- Decay above ground exposed to weather
- Decay within building envelope
- Corrosion exposed to weather
- Corrosion within building envelope
- Termite management
- Marine borer attack
Service Life Analysis
Analysis results for each attack mode give performance prediction for up to 100 years after installation.
Report of Analysis Results
Print, Print Preview, reporting of analysis results in Microsoft Word and PDF format are available for all attack modes, accessible via a combo-box on the main window of each attach mechanism.
If you require specific information on selecting members and structures with respect to their service life requirements, please refer to the WoodSolutions publication Technical Guide 5, Timber Service Life Design.
Hardware requirements
For the version released in 2013, please note the software only works on PCs and the recommended system requirements are OS: Microsoft ® Windows 7 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64), 50MB hard drive capacity and 1280 x 1024 screen resolution.
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Redistributable (or the full Framework) is required and linked in the TimberLife installation file. It must be installed if not present on your computer.
Please note this program does not work on Macs.
By downloading the TimberLife Education V1.1.0 software you agree to the TimberLife Educational Software V1.1.0 Terms and Conditions.
Instructions for extraction/installation of TimberLife from zip file
Extract all the folders/files to an empty folder. Double-click on "setup.exe," extracted from TimberLife.zip, to start installation.
Please note we are unable to provide technical support for the use of TimberLife.
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TimberLife Educational Software has been developed as an educational resource. The technical data supporting the software has been published in a series of manuals on www.fwpa.com.au. In general, the equations programmed for TimberLife give estimates of average or typical attack consequences.
The vision for developing durability design procedures for timber, based upon rational engineering reliability principles, can be attributed to Drs Bob Leicester and John Barnacle (ex CSIRO) in a Forest Products Research Conference paper in 1990. This vision was taken up and actively participated in, by the research fraternity (CSIRO-BCE, CSIRO-MIT, CSIRO-SE, CSIRO-DFFP, QLD and NSW Forest Research Institutes and private consultants), industry and Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) who undertook this world first Durability Design Project completed in 2007. Contributions of earlier Australian timber durability researchers (mainly CSIRO and State Forest Services) who had the foresight to establish long term field trials that are still producing valuable data, after more than 30 years exposure, must also be acknowledged.
The authors and developers of TimberLife are:
- Drs Bob Leicester, Chi-hsiang Wang, Minh Nguyen, Greg Foliente, and Laurie Cookson - timber service life model development.
- Dr Chi-hsiang Wang and Mr Bradley Lane - computer program development.Timber has mistakenly been viewed as a less reliable construction material to steel or concrete from a durability perspective. This has arisen mainly due to the huge range of species and natural durability and treatments available, coupled with the diverse macro and micro climatic environmental considerations facing specifiers across Australia.