Study of SMA-dowelled timber connection reinforced by densified veneer wood under cyclic loading

¹ Beijing Key Lab of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Retrofit, the Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering of Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
² School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
³ Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
⁴ China Gezhouba Group Company Limited, Wuhan 430033, China

^* Corresponding author: huanghaoyu@bjut.edu.cn

Abstract

This study explores the dynamic behaviours of shape memory alloy (SMA)-dowelled timber connection with densified veneer wood (DVW) reinforcement, so as to provide resilience to the timber structure. The performance of the SMA bar under cyclic bending is firstly studied, and it is found that it has superior self-centring effect and large ductility compared with that of the steel. By testing the SMA-dowelled timber connections and the conventional steel-dowelled timber connections under cyclic loading at various displacement levels, it is shown that SMA can provide better self-centring effect and larger ductility to the connection. The DVW reinforcement can enhance the self-centring and improve the strength. However, the energy dissipation capacity of the SMA-dowelled timber connection is lower than that of the steel-dowelled connection because of the smaller hysteresis area of the SMA. In the further study, the effect of the temperature control on SMA should be investigated to improve the damping capacity of the SMA-dowelled timber connection.