Glulam Truss

Glued Laminated Timber (glulam) = (my def.) wood structural member made up of laminating (gluing) relatively small pieces of wood together (in layers) to make one much larger (and stronger) than the constituent pieces.

Bowstring Trusses with Glulam Top and Bottom Chords, Victoria British Columbia Int'l Airport, Canada ...

The (glulam) members can be used for:

    substitution for big solid timbers that are unavailable (or too costly)

    for timber sizes unachievable with solid sawn timbers

    for timbers requiring greater strength and/or stiffness than solid timbers

For use in simple framing ... glulam can be used for ...

    joists, beams, girders, rafters

    posts or columns

The thing about glulam is that while providing support - it can also be very attractive, and thus we could categorize the use of glulam also in terms of ...

    un-exposed

    exposed

Glulam can also be made into curved shapes, and thus ...

    cambered beams

    curved beams (circular shape, S-shaped, whatever)

... and tapered, thus

    tapered beams (single or double taper)

    pitched and tapered curved beams

    arches with tapers