Structural Engineering: Timber Building Design—Graduate Certificate

Structural Engineering: Timber Building Design

Learn advanced design of timber structures.

The advent of mass timber and tall wood buildings has brought timber design back into the forefront of structural engineering and architecture. This comprehensive certificate allows you to consider how timber buildings are different from buildings constructed using other common civil structural materials. Study dimension lumber and mass timber. Design at the component and system levels. Analyze axially and flexurally loaded members, shear, bearing, and combined loading on members. Study connection design, shear walls and diaphragms, arches and tapered beams, modeling, and loading. Timber structural design is a historical strength of the department. Take advantage of this unique opportunity.

3 courses in 3 semesters.

Department	Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
Admissions requirement	Civil engineering, structural engineering, or related degree.
Contact	Angela Keranen

Length	3 courses in 2-3 semesters
Effort	3 hours per credit per week
Each course	3 credits
Total credits	9
Course type	Online or on-campus
Modality	Watch class recordings on demand
Cost	Based on credits and course type
Already enrolled?	Speak with your advisor.

Apply

Progress quickly with a compact curriculum.

Work with the program advisor to select courses that fit your interests and prerequisite skills.

Check your preparation.

Here are some of the pre-requisite courses for this certificate, depending on electives chosen. CEE 3710 or MA 3710 or equivalent may be required. Review the course descriptions for details.

CEE 3202 - Structural Analysis

Introduction to structural concepts and techniques for analyzing trusses, determinate and indeterminate beams, and frame structures. Apply concepts from statics and mechanics of materials to determine internal forces and deflections of structural members and systems, including loads and load paths.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring
Pre-Requisite(s): (ENG 2120 or MEEM 2150) and (MA 2320(C) or MA 2321(C) or MA 2330(C))

CEE 3710 - Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering

Introduction to probability, statistics, and uncertainty analysis with examples from civil engineering (e.g. models of vehicle arrivals, structural reliability, flood distributions). Topics include: discrete probability theory, probability distributions, parameter estimation, confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, linear regression, and model selection.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall
Pre-Requisite(s): MA 2160

MA 3710 - Engineering Statistics

Introduction to the design, conduct, and analysis of statistical studies aimed at solving engineering problems. Topics include methods of data collection, descriptive and graphical methods, probability and probability models, statistical inference, control charts, linear regression, design of experiments.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Pre-Requisite(s): MA 2160 or MA 3160(C)

CEE 4201 - Matrix Structural Analysis

Analysis of trusses and frames by the direct stiffness method. Use of a typical commercial computer code is stressed as a tool for complex structures. Introduces three-dimensional structures.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-2-2)
Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 3202

Take 6 credits of required courses.

CEE 4233 - Structural Timber Design

Introduction to the use of wood as a structural engineering material. Includes design of beams, columns, nailed and bolted connection, glulam members, including tapered beams, tapered and curved beam, and design of wood shear walls and diaphragms.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Spring
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 3202 or CMG 3250

CEE 5233 - Advanced Structural Timber Design

Advanced design of timber structures, including arches and traditional timber frames, advanced shear wall design, advanced connection design, including timber connectors, and advanced analysis and behavior of wood, including cumulative damage modeling.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, in odd years
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 4233

Take a 3 credit elective course.

CEE 5202 - Finite Element Analysis

Introduction to the use of finite element methods in structural analysis. Covers the finite element formulation, 1- and 2-D elements, including isoparametric elements, axisymmetric analysis, plate and shell elements, dynamics, buckling, and nonlinear analysis.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Spring
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 4201

CEE 5241 - Structural Dynamics

Free and forced vibration of undamped and damped single degree of freedom systems. Seismic design using the equivalent lateral force method. Introduction to multi-degree of freedom systems and transmissibility.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall, Summer
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 4201(C)

CEE 5730 - Probabilistic Analysis and Reliability

Examines probabilistic analysis of engineering systems including first-order methods, Monte Carlo simulation, and time-to-failure analysis. Reliability analysis will include capacity/demand reliability and system reliability. Emphasis will be on civil and environmental engineering systems.

Credits: 3.0
Lec-Rec-Lab: (0-3-0)
Semesters Offered: Fall
Pre-Requisite(s): CEE 3502 or CEE 3710 or MA 3710

The minimum completion time is three semesters.

Here is a typical schedule.

	Spring
	CEE 4233
Summer	Fall
CEE 5241	CEE 5233

Enroll for Online

Check the schedule of online classes to see which of your required or elective courses are available for upcoming semesters.
Consult the academic calendar for fall and spring instruction start dates.
Estimate costs based on tuition and online fees.
Apply to the Graduate School for fall or spring semester.

Enroll for On-campus

Review MTU Flex announcements related to the Graduate School.
Check the schedule of classes to see which of your required or elective courses are available for upcoming semesters.
Consult the academic calendar for fall and spring instruction start dates.
Estimate costs based on tuition.
Apply to the Graduate School for fall or spring semester.

Interested in taking a single, online course? Enroll as a non-degree seeking student.

Upon completion of the certificate, students will be able to:

Design a range of wood structures subjected to gravity and lateral loads, including glulam and light-frame wood structures.

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