Keywords: Residual Life, Ancient Timber Component, Cumulative Damage Model, Load duration

Abstract: Introduction: Ancient timber structure is a common cultural heritage of mankind. How to be aware of the current working performance, make accurate maintenance plan and evaluate its residual life has became a common concern of the academic circles. This paper is a literature review of the development of cumulative damage models and the combination of these models and residual life prediction of ancient timber structures. Developments: Wood’s experimental data(1951) showed that the mechanical property of timber would decreases over time. Gerhards(1979) proposed the cumulative damage model of da/dt=exp(-a+bσ(t)/σs) that had been widely used around the world. During the last 30 years, the direction of research was more focused on the effects of environment based on the previous experimental data. Remarks and Conclusion: Most of the research did not take it into consideration that the σs in Gerhards’s model is not invariable, it will decrease over time like the description in Madison curve. And it is advised to perform a much more accurate and detailed test for current research.

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