Rotational behavior and modeling of bolted glulam beam-to-column connections with slotted-in steel plate

Abstract

In this article, the rotational behavior of typical bolted glulam beam-to-column connections with slotted-in steel plate was studied in the numerical method. In order to describe the complicated behavior of wood more closely, an elastic–plastic damage constitutive law combining the Hill yielding criterion and a modified Hashin failure criterion was embedded in the commercial ABAQUS software in the form of a VUMAT subroutine. Subsequently, a three-dimensional finite element model based on the constitutive law proposed was established, with the failure mode and moment–rotation curve compared to some similar experiments. Based on this finite element model, a parametric study concentrating on the influence of the width of the beam, bolt diameter, and assembly clearance was carried out. It was found that the numerical method using the proposed constitutive law showed a good capacity to study the rotational behavior of the connections. Besides, the initial rotational stiffness increased with the increase in beam width and bolt diameter, and the assembly clearances between bolts and bolt holes would affect the initial rotational stiffness while the assembly clearance between beam and column affected little.