Designing timber connections for ductility – A review and discussion
Review article, 2021

This paper discusses the design principles of timber connections for ductility with focus on laterally-loaded dowel-type fasteners. Timber connections are critical components of timber structures: not only do they join members, but they also affect load capacity, stiffness, and ductility of the overall system. Moreover, due to the brittle failure behaviour of timber when loaded in tension or shear, they are often the only source of ductility and energy dissipation in the structure in case of overloading, much like a fuse in an electrical circuit. This paper addresses current challenges in connection design for ductility, reviews selected best-practice design approaches to ensure ductility in timber connections, suggests simple performance-based design criteria to design connections for ductility, and aims to stimulate a discussion around potential solutions to implement safe design principles for ductile connections in future design codes and connection testing regimes.

Ductility

Performance-based design

Timber connections

Design codes

Author

Lisa Mareike Ottenhaus

University of Queensland

Robert Jockwer

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering

David van Drimmelen

University of Queensland

Keith Crews

University of Queensland

Construction and Building Materials

0950-0618 (ISSN)

Vol. 304 124621

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Building Technologies

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

DOI

10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.124621

More information

Latest update

9/13/2021