TENSION-LOADED CONNECTIONS WITH WOOD DOWELS

Abstract

Wood dowels carry tremendous opportunities concerning their application as fasteners and connection elements. Aspects such as sustainability and homogeneous recyclability can be addressed very well by using them to an increasing degree. Although they have been quite common for carpenters for hundreds of years, several characteristics need to be clarified systematically from an engineering point of view. In this context, results and further investigations are presented within this paper. The load-bearing behaviour of beech dowels under tension force is subject to pull-out and shear testing. Both the inclination angle and the penetration length as major parameters are varied. The interrelation between the inclination, failure loading and ductility of wood dowels is not linear. This finding should be considered when designing and dimensioning new segmented cross-sections.