ENCI 427

Timber Engineering

Connection Design –
Glued-in Steel Rods

1. Wood (LVL / Glulam)

Dr. Minghao Li
Rm 203, ICT Buildings 2. Steel Rods (deformed rebar / fully threaded rods)
minghao.li@canterbury.ac.nz
3. Adhesives (Epoxy / Polyurethane)

Advantages Jellie Park

•Good performance in carrying axial loads

•Good aesthetic appearance

•Good protection against corrosions

•Easy & quick erection on site

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Epoxied rods in apex and base joints Gluing on site (avoid as much as possible)

Base connections Epoxied knee joints

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Tolerance control for pre-fabbed parts Epoxied knee joints

Bracing connections

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 Sydney 2000 Olympics Lab Testing
• Parallel to grain • Perpendicular to grain

Influential parameters Rod spacing and edge distance

1) Embedment length

2) Diameter of the rod

3) Edge distance and rod spacing

4) Hole diameter

5) Moisture

6) Duration of load

7) Effect of multiple rods

8) Load-to-grain angle

9) Density of timber

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Possible failure modes Failure modes

a) Wood shear failure along the rod

b) Wood tensile failure
c) Wood shear block failure
d) Wood splitting failure
e) Steel rod yielding

Pull-out tests Long term testing

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Glulam portal frame knee joints Glulam Knee joints

LVL knee joints Mitred knee joints

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Steel hub knee joints Beam-column Joints

Seismic beam-column joints Epoxied rods through joint

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Epoxied rods through joint
Epoxied rod characteristics
§ Fire Performance
– Epoxy loses strength at temperatures above 50oC
– Some thermal protection from timber layer

§ Factory produced/proof tested

– Important that rods are glued in factory for
quality control
– Proof testing if necessary (to serviceability loads)

Epoxied rod characteristics Design Procedure

§ Moisture effects 1. Form and Preliminary Sizes
– High MC may reduces tensile strength up to 25% 2. Actions – Loads on Building

§ Rod characteristics 3. Analysis – Forces and Moments

– Same tensile and compression capacity 4. Member Sizes – NZS 3603
– Different epoxies have different strengths
5. Connection Actions

§ Disadvantages 6. Steel bar type and Quantity

– Relatively high cost
7. Geometry Checks
– Limited ductility
8. Embedment Length

9. Net Timber Section

10. Iterate as Needed

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Connection Design Strength 1. Check steel strength

Axial strength for steel yielding:

1. Check steel strength (•Qn)steel
§ (•Qn)steel = •steel n As fy
2. Check wood strength (•Qn)wood •steel=0.8

3. Check rod pullout strength (•Qn)pullout n=number of steel rods

As = cross section area of each steel rod

Design strength = min ((•Qn)steel, (•Qn)wood, (•Qn)pullout )
fy=characteristic yield strength of steel

2. Check wood strength 3. Check rod pullout capacity

Tensile strength for wood under tension: Steel rod pullout strength:
(•Qn)pullout = •conn k1 n kg Qk
(•Qn)wood = •conn k1 Aw ft
§ n = number of steel rods

•conn =0.7 § kg = bar group reduction factor (e.g., 0.9 for 3 or 4 bars)

K1=duration of load factor Qk = 6.73 kb ke km (l/d)0.86(d/20)1.62(h/d)0.5(e/d)0.5

Aw=net area of wood cross section, excluding drilled holes; § d = bar diameter (12• d• 24mm)

§ l = embedment depth (5d• l• 20d)

ft=characteristic tensile strength of wood
§ h = hole diameter (1.15d• h• 1.4d)

§ e = edge distance from centre of bar (e• 1.5d)

§ Kb = bar type factor (1.0 for threaded, 0.8 for deformed)

§ ke = epoxy type factor (West systems and K-80, ke =1.0)

§ Km = moisture factor (<15%, Km = 1.0; 15-22%, Km = 0.8)

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Design chart (Figure 29.5) Knee joint design
• Loading Moment Capacity, LSD
• M*• •Mn

• M*=design bending moment

• •Mn = Design strength of the member in bending

§ Member sizing - example M*

§ Requires beam size – 800x90 LVL

§ M*=100kNm

§ Couple – F x d = •Mn
§ •F = M*/d

§ •F = tensile capacity of dowels/compressive capacity

required
d
§ d = Average distance between dowels. •F •F

§ 100kNm/0.62m = 161.3kN (as per TDG) it is assumed

that each dowel takes the same tensile load.

§ Three dowels so each dowel takes 53.7kN.

Final joint detail Reference

Timber Design Guide

Chapter 29

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