Effects of the presence or absence and the position of glued edge joints in the lamina on the shear strength of glued laminated timber

Abstract

Four kinds of glued laminated timber were produced (i.e., one with a glued edge-joint and the other three with nonglued edge joints) in the lamina at different positions toward the depth direction. Shear tests using an asymmetric four-point bending method were then conducted for these glued laminated timber specimens. The results showed that although the glued edge-joint specimens had the highest shear strength in all groups, the shear strength decreased as the distance from the adjacent nonglued edge-joint plane decreased. Furthermore, the shear strength of all specimens exceeded the standard shear design strength value (2.1 N/mm2) set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan. Next, the shear strength of the nonglued edge-joint specimens was estimated based on that of the glued edge-joint specimens. Although the mean-estimated shear strength was lower than the mean-measured shear strength, the possibility of the shear strength changing based on the position of the nonglued edge-joint plane specimens from that of the glued edge-joint specimens was still estimated.