Ductility aspects of reinforced and non-reinforced timber joints

Even though brittle failure modes in timber joints may be avoided by the proper design of the connection, the use of minimum timber dimensions and minimum spacing and distances of fasteners often leads to timber splitting in the connection area. Due to the highly nonlinear behaviour of timber loaded in compression as well as the steel used for mechanical fasteners, timber joints can behave in a rather ductile manner. Ductile behaviour is preferable in timber structures.Technical innovations regarding engineered wood products as well as fastener and steel technology led to the development of high-performance timber connections. In these high-performance connections, brittle failure modes are prevented by reinforcing the timber in the connection area perpendicular to the grain or using cross-laminated timber members. The improvement of the ductility levels is shown based on several experimental studies comparing non-reinforced to reinforced connections.