FATIGUE RESISTANCE OF ADHESIVE BONDED CONNECTIONS WITH AND WITHOUT INTERNAL STEEL PLATES IN LARGE TIMBER STRUCTURES

Paper in proceeding, 2023

A modular wooden wind turbine tower has been developed by the Swedish company Modvion AB, where the prefabricated modular elements are connected by glued timber-timber edge joints and by hybrid timber joints with bonded-in perforated steel plates. The application of wood-based products in such a demanding application and high-performance structure is challenging and a variety of questions had to be solved to ensure a reliable performance. The fatigue performance of the adhesive bonded connections has been evaluated in a research project and is presented in this paper. Test specimens of the fatigue resistance of the adhesive and the bond line has been developed. Different stress ratios with alternating loads and high numbers of load cycles have been tested. The results of the tests are presented in this paper.