Numerical and experimental analyses of multiple-dowel steel-to-timber joints in tension perpendicular to grain

The behaviour of dowel-type steel-to-timber joints loaded in tension perpendicular to grain is analyzed experimentally and numerically. Two main types of failures are observed in the experiments such as wood splitting and embedding. The experimental results are used to validate a three-dimensional (3D) non-linear finite element model. The non-linear model uses the Hill criterion to control the plastic yielding of wood material. The Hoffman failure criterion, controlling the damage evolution in wood, is used to take into account the brittle failure in shear and tension perpendicular to grain. The comparison with experimental results shows that the numerical results are in good agreement with them. The validated model is used to investigate the effect of some influential parameters on the splitting strength of the joints loaded in tension perpendicular to grain. Besides, the splitting strengths given by the numerical model are used to evaluate the accuracy of some analytical formulae available in the literature.