Dowel-type fasteners according to EC5 and their structural modelling within commercial engineering software

Hochreiner, G., Bader, T. K., de Borst, K. and Eberhardtsteiner, J. (2013) Dowel-type fasteners according to EC5 and their structural modelling within commercial engineering software. Bauingeniuer, 2013(6), pp. 275-289.

Abstract

Eurocode 5 (EC5) [1] as the current effective design code for timber structures contains a lot of rules for metal ­dowel-type fasteners like staples, nails, screws, dowels and bolts. At the moment engineers are not able to fullfill the requirements ­concerning stiness of connectors in an adequate mode only by use of the formulas implemented in EC5.Growing availability of tools for modelling non-linearities within structures and materials even in commercial structural analysis software offers the chance to check traditional structural verifications with respect to their being up-to-date and to add or even replace them by more effcient strategies using modern software tools.As presented in this paper basic modelling only with beam elements is capable not only to reproduce the results according to the formulas of Johansen [5] for the ultimate load but also to predict the load-deformation-curve valid for every load level. Even the load level at the elastic limit can be deduced. Performance of the structural analysis of the whole system for both serviceability and ultimate limit state with only model is the big advantage of this approach, since the is no more the need of adjustment of the stiffness according to the corresponding load level. The current paper deals with a survey of the main design rules for dowel-type fasteners, the development of continuative strategies for a coherent system of approval based on timber specific fundamentals and the handling of the advanced approach using the example of a simple set of a dowel connector.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: De Borst, Dr Karin
• Authors: Hochreiner, G., Bader, T. K., de Borst, K., and Eberhardtsteiner, J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: Bauingeniuer
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• ISSN: 0005-6650
• ISSN (Online): 1436-4867