Behavior of wood beam connection using staples subjected to in-plane moment

Abstract

It is very frequent that solid wood beams need to be connected one to another to obtain a longer beam. In this study, the behavior of solid wood beams connections using plywood sheets as connecting elements and staples as mechanical fasteners were studied experimentally. The experimental results were compared with elastic analyses. Both beam and plywood were made of meranti (shorea). The staple type was MAX 1022J. This study was conducted on two specimens. The first specimen had two rows of staples on the front and back sides of the specimen. Each row consisted of ten staples making a total of 40 staples. The second one had three rows of staples on the front and back sides of the specimen. Each row consisted of ten staples making a total of 60 staples. From the tests, it can be concluded that each material in the connection, namely wood beam, plywood, and staples, failed. Failure mode of the wood beam was in the form of crack and tear. Failure mode of the plywood was the damage of the plywood directly contacted with the crown of the staples. Failure modes of the staples were flexural yielding. The differences between connection strength obtained from tests and elastic analyses were 8.18% for the first specimen and 0.65% for the second specimen, with the test results were higher than the elastic analyses results. It can be concluded that elastic analysis is quite accurate and conservative to estimate the strength of this type of connection, provided that the lateral resistance of connection with a staple is known.