Analysis of dowelled timber to timber moment-resisting joints

Abstract

Dowelled joints, widely used in timber structures, are designed to transfer shear forces and bending moments between timber members. The anisotropic non-linear behaviour of the timber beneath the fasteners controls the stiffness of these joints. At the ultimate load-carrying capacity, the failure modes result from the shear stresses induced by the load distribution among the fasteners. The paper presents the experimental results obtained for beam to column joint with or without reinforcement using glued plywood plates. Based on these results, a two-dimensional finite element model was developed in two stages to describe the three-dimensional behaviour of the joint. At the single fastener scale, the model considers the non-linearity induced by the timber embedding and the fastener bending. At the structural scale, the modelling approach considers the timber as an elastic orthotropic material whereas each fastener is modelled by two non-linear springs. The elastic-plastic behaviour of each spring element is defined by the local scale model defined in two perpendicular directions. The load distribution among the fasteners is compared to the analytical results according to design rules. Considering the global load displacement curves, the results show that the modelling approach provides a good estimation of the structural response.