Reliability and structural behaviour of timber trusses under consideration of connections

Abstract

In order to build large timber structures such as trusses, single elements are joined together with connections. Within these connections, multi-axial stress states, reduced cross-sections, anisotropy and variability of the wood are of concern. This results in connections being the critical components of a timber structure. Despite their fundamental role on the global structural behaviour, the overall design process is based on an element-by-element approach, where only the load-bearing capacity of the components is considered, but not their stiffness.
Therefore, the aim of this research is to study the global behaviour and reliability of timber structures on a basis of the behaviour and scattering of the properties of its components. Given a huge variety of possible structures, this project focuses only on high performance structures, namely trussed structures with connections with dowel-type steel fasteners. A multi-scale modelling approach from the material scale, via single connectors, up to the entire system will be used. Models to propagate uncertainties from one scale to the other are of special interest. The main output of this project will be the development of new system-based design concepts for timber structures.
This system based approach shall be considered as a basis for an economical and realistic design of timber trusses. The principle behind this approach can later be applied to different structural systems.

Support

This project is kindly supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).