Finite element modeling for the mechanical behavior of dowel-type timber joints

The mechanical performances of timber joints are particularly important for timber engineers involved in the design of the wood structures. In general, joints are often one of the weakest points in a timber structure. However, to simplify the problem, most previous investigations have considered the effects of individual parameters on the mechanical behavior of timber joints. Thus, it is difficult to undertake an analytical study due to interactions among parameters. In this paper, a finite element model for a dowel-type timber joint is proposed to investigate the mechanical performance of un-reinforced and reinforced timber joints affected by the various parameters. Moreover, a stress-interaction based failure criterion is proposed to predict the strength of such joints. The numerical prediction of the proposed finite element method model overall agrees with the experimental results of mechanical testing.