The construction industry is increasingly driven by sustainability concerns, prompting a search for alternative materials with a low environmental footprint, such as engineered wood products. Nowadays, connections of timber elements are still performed by the use of steel plates. However, steel plates can be replaced by plywood made of birch since it has superior mechanical properties compared to plywood made from softwood (Wang et al. 2021, 2022; Crocetti et al. 2021; Werner Åström, 2019). Besides, the capacity calculation for this connection according to the standards is conservative, meaning that the efficiency is low and the actual capacity could be much higher than the design value (Rossi et al. 2016). This research aims to enhance the knowledge and the design process of timber-to-timber connections with birch plywood (BP) plates.
Keywords: birch plywood, mechanical connection, rope effect
Authors
Mattia Debertolis
Building Materials Division, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Yue Wang
Building Materials Division, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Tianxiang Wang
Building Materials Division, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Roberto Crocetti
Building Materials Division, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Magnus Wålinder
Building Materials Division, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
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