Strength characterization of wood to wood connections using stress field analysis

Minimizing construction cost and material usage are two dominant aspects in structural design. As a building material, timber presents a cheap, renewable option. However, current practice favors steel connections for wood structures. Wood to wood connections offer a solution to the minimization of steel connections. While some wood-only connections are referenced in timber codes, small modifications to these designs as well as a multitude of other possible connection types are yet to be characterized. This thesis analyzes wood to wood joints with stress fields. Stress field analyses may quickly and easily enable the design of timber joints and characterize the maximum loads they can handle. First, this thesis surveys and interconnects the theoretical concepts of wood behavior, plastic design, stress fields, and graphic statics. Additionally, this thesis tests these relationships empirically by load testing a designed double-birdsmouth connection and observing inconsistencies between the theoretical stress field model, code-required strength, and physical tests. The thesis shows that stress fields are a suitable design approach when considering the design of this wood-wood joint. The results also show that careful consideration must be attributed to the material properties of the wood as well as the possible failure modes. This thesis finally shows that shear failure should be checked in addition to compressive and tensile failure and provides a quick method to ensure a safe design.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Shope, Mitchell G. (Mitchell Grafton)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Ochsendorf and Corentin Fivet.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104245

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/104245