The effect of dowel spacing on the stress and strain of case-Type furniture corner joint

Abstract

This paper presents stress and strain analysis of double-dowel case-Type furniture corner joint. Numerical calculations are carried out with a linear elastic model for orthotropic material. The mathematical model is solved by a finite element method. The von Mises stress and displacement are calculated for the simple state of load of MDF board structure. Three dowel spacing are used in order to evaluate the effect of the distance between the centers of dowel holes. The results show that the dowel spacing and the distance between the dowel and the board edge have a considerable impact on the stress state of the face and edge member. Stress patterns obtained in planes of boards show that stress is increased in the areas of fracture zones that occur during the fracture moment tests of dowel joints. Results of the displacement calculation indicate that joint becomes stiffer when the distances between the dowels and the dowel and the board edge are rationally defined.