Reinforcement of timber elements in compression perpendicular to the grain using compressed wood dowels

Conway, Michael, O'Ceallaigh, Conan, Mehra, Sameer, & Harte, Annette M. (2020). Reinforcement of timber elements in compression perpendicular to the grain using compressed wood dowels. Paper presented at the CERI 2020 Civil Engineering Research in Ireland (Online Conference), Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland, 27-28 August, doi: 10.13025/sbeg-3p91

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the past decade, there has been an increased focus on the environmental impacts of construction and a movement towards more sustainable construction products. Timber is one such sustainable product that can achieve these environmental targets but, while timber has a high strength-to-weight ratio parallel to the grain, it demonstrates poor strength perpendicular to the grain. As a result, stress perpendicular to the grain is an important factor in the design of timber structures, especially in areas of concentrated loading, such as supports. This paper describes a study, which examines the use of compressed wood dowels as a sustainable alternative to the self-tapping steel screws for reinforcement against perpendicular to the grain compressive stresses. Glued laminated timber specimens were reinforced with 2, 4 and 6 dowels using the same arrangement and dimensions as outlined in Eurocode 5 for self-tapping steel screws. The results show a significant improvement in both load-bearing capacity and stiffness. When compared to the unreinforced condition, the results showed an increase in load-carrying capacity of up to 30% for the 6 dowels arrangement. An increase in stiffness of up to 36% for 6 dowels arrangement was also observed. Additionally, good agreement was found when comparing the experimental results to design equations adapted from recently proposed Eurocode 5 recommendations for compression reinforcement using self-tapping steel screws.

Publisher

National University of Ireland Galway

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland

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Collections

Civil Engineering (Conference Papers)