Numerical Evaluation of Failure Mechanisms and Retrofitting of Connections in Mass Timber Buildings

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

With the growing trend in industry towards zero carbon construction, mass timber structuresare becoming more accepted globally. Beam-to-column connections in mass timber buildingsare currently designed to carry shear actions. However, the connections may be considered totake moment actions and large rotations to comply with ductility and robustness requirementsof the building standards. The current study deploys finite element analysis (FEA) to investigatethe failure due to large deformation and rotation of a typical bolted beam-to-columnconnection and provides an economic retrofitting design solution using self-tapping screws(STS). The FEA is validated against current or published experimental results and is used toconduct a thorough assessment of the retrofitted connection. It is shown that a properarrangement of screws can delay the brittle failure, develop significant moment-resistingcapacity, and enhance the rotational ductility of the connection.