Rotational Behavior of Bolted Glulam Beam-to-Column Connections Reinforced with Section Steel

Abstract:

Bolted connections with slotted-in steel plates are commonly used to connect beams and columns in heavy timber structures. While due to the low tensile strength of wood in the perpendicular-to-grain direction, these connections are usually not able to present satisfying rotational performance. In order to solve this problem, a relatively new type of bolted connection, reinforced with section steel, was designed and tested in this paper. Two groups of total six specimens were tested under monotonic loading to investigate their rotational behavior. Tests showed that the brittle failure mode of wood splitting in the perpendicular-to-grain direction was fully restrained. Only slight cracks were observed in most specimens, except one that underwent bending failure in the beam member. Test results indicated an average increase of 78.7% in moment resistance and a 54.8% increase in ductility ratio for middle-storey connections, compared with conventional connections simply using slotted-in steel plates. Top-storey connections, without previous test results as comparison, also presented high moment-bearing capacity and reliable deformability. As a result, such connection may receive a broad application, especially in multi-storey heavy timber structures.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 858)
• Pages: 15-21
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.858.15
• Online since: November 2016
• Authors: Yu Rong Ma, Xiao Bin Song*, Tian Qi Xu, Lie Luo
• Keywords: Beam to Column Connection, Ductility Ratio, Glulam, Middle-Storey Connection, Moment Resistance, Section Steel, Top-Storey Connection

References

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