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NATURNAER-Natur og næring

Modelling and development of connections in timber structures

Awarded: NOK 4.0 mill.

The competitiveness of timber structures depends on the connections. New fasteners may give more effective connections with respect to load bearing, stiffness and overall costs. Multi-storey timber houses have frames with shear-walls and diaphragms. Desig n restrictions due to openings in external shear walls give little flexibility. Improvement of mechanical connectors offers new opportunities for rigid joints in glulam frames. Lack of documentation of mechanical behaviour and design rules for new fasten ers like self-tapping screws, are obstacles for rapid development of effective connections. These may be explored through analytical considerations, experimental tests, or by numerical simulation using the finite element method (FEM). The complexity of st ress and strain distribution in connections, limits use of analytical tools for exploration of unknown mechanical behaviour. New connection designs by experiments involves large costs, long development time and low innovation rate. Unlike wood, other buil ding materials like steel have good FEM models. FEM models for wood are at an early development stage in comparison. The innovation of effective connections suffers from lacking simulations of wood behaviour. The project will contribute to development of more effective connections especially by means of numerical simulations. The research approach uses numerical modelling and experiments. The experimental program consist of test series on three different levels; on material level for verification of model ling concepts and calibration of wood parameters, on idealized connections for validation of numerical and analytical models, and on framed structures with rigid joints.

Funding scheme:

NATURNAER-Natur og næring