Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to experimentally evaluate the embedding strength of dowel-type fasteners in Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), observing the effect of lamellae orientation and the dowel diameters. Thereby, CLT specimens – with three layers of lamellae – and solid timber specimens were produced and tested under loads at 0o and 90o with the direction of the grain, considering five dowel diameters. The results showed that CLT embedding strength depends on the dowel diameter in the two investigated directions. The CLT embedding strength parallel to the grain was up to 8% lower than those for solid timber in the same direction, and up to 26% higher than the solid timber strength in the perpendicular direction. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant difference between the mean values of the CLT and solid timber embedding strengths, except for the embedding strength perpendicular to the grain found for 16 mm dowel diameter. When comparing the results obtained experimentally with those determined analytically, the equation proposed by KENNEDY et al. (2014) led to a better agreement, for both the loads applied at 0o and 90o to the grain direction. Keywords: Cross-laminated Timber; Dowelled connections; Embedment strength; Half-hole embedment tests; Design approaches.
Highlights
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a wood construction system gaining more and more space in the world market
The following nomenclature was adopted to show the results for the embedding strength: fe,0,CLT and fe,90,CLT corresponds to the CLT embedding strength in direction 1 and 2, respectively; fe,0,st and fe,90,st corresponds to the solid timber embedding strength in direction 1 and 2, respectively
This research experimentally investigated the behavior of CLT specimens submitted to dowel embedment
Summary
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a wood construction system gaining more and more space in the world market. CLT has become one of the most important construction products in wood engineering [1]. The global volume produced annually is expected to be 1.25 million m3 by 2020 [2]. Nowadays, according to AMORIN et al [3], the countries leading the use of CLT are Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. CLT structural panels are commonly composed by an odd number of sawn timber layers, bonded orthogonally to each other. The cross lamination provides a material homogenization, resulting in panels with relatively better mechanical properties than lumber and able to resist in-plane and out-of-plane loading [4,5,6]
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