Development of compressed wood fasteners for timber construction IV. Moment resistance of a joint model with a compressed LVL plate and effect of reinforcement by glass fiber sheets

To evaluate the moment resistance of compressed LVL plates, moment resistin g drift pill joint models simulating beam-column joints were tested. These joints were comprised of a 9-ply compressed LVL plate of parallel laminates (P-type) or crossbanded laminates (C-type) and two steel plates, compresse d LVL plates including glass fiber sheet layers were also tested. The resul ts were as follows: 1) The P-type plates split parallel to the grain direction. However the C-t ype plates with more than two crossband layers avoided the splitting failur e. The C-type plate was stuitable for the connecting plates, but to avoid s plitting failures, the C-type plates with enough end- and edgedistance need ed two crossband layers, and those with insufficient distances needed three layers. 2) The reinforcement by the glass fiber sheets was effective for the P-type plate and the C-type plate with a crossband layer, where the moment resist ance and the rotational stiffless under load perpendicular to the grain of the face veneer were not enough to avoid splitting. However, for the C-type plates with more than two crossband layers, those were enough to do so, an d the effect of reinforcement was not significant. 3) Linear stress analyses were conducted of the moment resisting joints emp loying the compressed LVL plate, based on the anisotropy of the strength an d the deformation obtained from bearing strength tests of the compressed LV L plate. The relationships between the experimental and calculated values w ere in significant correlation and showed that this analysis method was eff ective for the prediction of the moment resistance of the compressed LVL pl ate.