Behaviour of bond lines in dvw reinforced timber connections

This paper presents a study of the behaviour of bond lines of Densified Veneer Wood (DVW) reinforced timber connections. Studies by Leijten in the 90s have shown that reinforced timber connections with DVW results in a significant enhancement of connections properties. The DVW is in these connections glued onto the timber. Recently, these reinforced connections were studied in column-beam and splice type arrangements using connecting flitch plates. In these arrangements additional stresses are introduced in the bond line. A numerical study was performed to the bond line capacity, but experiments did not fully verify the predictions. For the present study the fracture mechanical properties of bond lines between DVW and Norway Spruce were determined experimentally, and were implemented in three dimensional finite element models. Delamination tests were performed to verify the numerical procedure. From these tests it is concluded that the numerical predictions correspond well to the experiments.