Causes, assessment and impact of cracks in timber elements

The increasing number of large timber structures and particularly of public buildings requires the assessment and monitoring of timber structures for safe, reliable timber constructions. Within the assessment, one obvious sign are cracks, which occur due to the natural behaviour of wood but also due to physical and/or mechanical excessive
stresses. The paper present, categorize and discuss the causes of cracks, explains test standards for the quality control of glulam members and shows possibilities for the assessment.