Multiple Shear Plane Timber Connections with Birch Plywood and Dowel-Type Fasteners

Timber connections with slotted-in steel plates are commonly used in large-scale structures. One alternative could be timber connections with birch plywood plates (Crocetti et al., 2021; Furuheim et al., 2021). Birch plywood not only exhibits high strength-to-weight ratio, but it is also cost-efficient, it has less environmental impact, it is not very sensitive to tolerances and it has good workability. However, the load-bearing capacity of this type of connection needs to be investigated for its applicability in the structural field. In this study, lumber and plywood were assembled by one or three dowel-type fasteners and then loaded in uniaxial tension. The geometry of the timber components and the fasteners are designed in a way that a ductile behavior of the global connection system and the formation of several plastic hinges in the fasten-er are expected. The structural performance was analyzed and further compared with the values obtained through analytical models.

Keywords: birch plywood, timber connections, multiple shear planes, dowel-type fasteners

Authors

Tianxiang Wang
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Building Materials, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Yue Wang
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Building Materials, Stockholm, Sweden

Magnus Wålinder
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Roberto Crocetti
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