Use of Technical Textiles and Densified Wood for Timber Joints

Peer Haller, Jörg Wehsener

Dresden University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering

1 Introduction

Joints in timber engineering transfer load mostly by means of slotted steel plates attached to
the timber cross section by means of dowel-type fasteners. Load is transferred and distributed
via these steel plates what avoids dangerous transverse and shear stresses in the wood. This
technique also avoids cross-sectional variations as occur in joints used in carpentry or those
with laterally fixed side members.
The occurring shear and cleavage stresses below the fasteners are a major drawback
encountered by low strength properties of the fibrous material wood. Therefore timber-steel-
compounds exploit the load carrying capacity of the timber cross section only to some extent
(about 10 - 20%) and tent to brittle failure if the wood fails without prior plasticization of the
metal fasteners. So plastic design methods as e. g. with semi-rigid joints in steel construction
cannot be applied [1].
The load carrying behaviour of timber joints with regard to rigidity, load capacity and
ductility can essentially be improved by reinforcement. This requires an increase of transverse
and shear strength of the wood by means as described in [2].
Technical textiles prove to be very promising and universally applicable. Especially
transverse and shear strength of wood can be improved very effectively by the application of
textile structures with adhesives. Common technical textiles are reasonable in price, can be
draped and varied in almost every way concerning their weight, kind of fibre and structure
[3].
Glass-fibre reinforcement with commercial fabrics does not much improve embedding
strength and rigidity but essentially improves ductility [5]. The embedding behaviour of wood
decisively depends on its density [6] so that the use of hard wood or densified soft wood [7]
results in a further improvement of load carrying behaviour. Textile structures and densified
wood present two techniques that produce very stiff, strong and ductile joints.
State of the art
According to the objectives timber elements can be reinforced by textiles in two different
ways.
On the one hand the timber element is reinforced by means of pultruded laminates glued to
it parallel to the grain. Thus e. g. flexural rigidity and strength of beams are increased what is
applied with great success in wooden buildings rehabilitation. In this case mainly stiff high-
strength carbon and aramide fibres are used. The especially good mechanical properties of
laminated wood have to be considered together with small cross section of a thin carbon
laminate so that its ultimate load and tensile strength are approximately equivalent.
On the other hand commercial fabrics of different weight can be glued on the wet or dry
surface producing the composite directly on the wood. This method is applied in boat,

Materials for Buildings and Structures. Edited by F. H. Wittmann

Copyright  2000 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim.
ISBN: 3-527-30125-9
 67

propeller and timber construction [9]. This does not primarily aim at improving the
longitudinal strength of the wood but its transverse and shear strength as well as the
protection against environment and weather.
Objectives
In this study two experimental series were carried out. In the first part the embedding
characteristics according to DIN EN 383 were investigated for solid wood, textile
reinforcement and densified wood.
In the second part the load carrying behavior of a shear joint is investigated for different
design parameters.
At present the authors intent the use of straight forward textile technology that allows an
orientation of the fibre according to the local stress state and the shape of the construction
element.

2 Material and Methods

2.1 Material
The samples were made of spruce boards (2000 x 135 x 40 mm) of grade GK II according to
[DIN 1052]. Prior to the tests these boards were industrially dried and a part of them was
densified in a heating press to 50 % of the initial cross section. These boards - normal and
densified - were connected by means of finger joints and glue laminated. For the shear
specimens the densified part of the laminates was shifted by 100 mm respectively (fig. 1b)
what resulted in a conical connecting area with a higher density. As an adhesive there was
used a formaldehyde-free polyurethane glue (manufacturer Collano: Purbond HB 110). Table
1 contains the mean values of moisture content and density before and after densification.
Moreover, samples were made of commercial laminated wood of grade GK II which serve
as a reference.

Table 1 Density and wood moisture of spruce laminates used

Materials Density [kg/m3] Moisture [%]
laminated wood, GK II 370 ... 430 10 ... 14
spruce laminate before 450 ... 480 14 ... 16
densification and after 880 ... 980 6 ... 8
densification (to 50%)
solid wood finger joint densified wood

glass fibre fabric glass fibre fabric

+45°/-45° 0°/90° +45°/-45° 0°/90°

100

Figure 1a) GF-reinforced / solid wood Figure 1b) GF-reinforced / 50% densified
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2.2 Making of Samples

Densification
The laminates were densified in three steps: heating up, densification and recooling. During
the first phase the laminates were heated up by the panels of the press using a low contact
pressure of 0.2 to 0.3 MPa. The solid wood heating was calculated with an assumed value of
1 to 2 mm/min. After the temperature in the centre of the sample had reached 140 °C the
densification process started. With a further heating to 150 °C pressure was continually
increased to 2.5 MPa. In order to prevent excessive drying there was chosen a relatively high
closing speed of 1 mm/min. After the densification process of about 40 minutes the recooling
of the wood samples to 60 °C began, which lasted approximately as long as the heating.
Lamination
The timber components were reinforced by glass-fibre fabrics of type E and a weight of 200
g/m2. Previously an adhesive activator (manufacturer: Vosschemie; G4 - primer) was applied
to enhance bonding strength. From 0 to 4 layers were applied manually using a two-
component epoxy resin (manufacturer: Vosschemie; LN-1 Epoxy A + B). The „wet method“
was used [8], where the adhesive is spread on the timber surface and the fabric is pressed on it
without prior impregnation. Using epoxy resin avoids an additional surface pressure. For
complete hardening the components had been stored in ambient climate for 10 days. Rigidity
and characteristic values of the fabric and the adhesive are presented in the following table.

Table 2 Material values according to [7]

Characteristic values Glass fibre Type E Epoxy resin Composite
Young-modulus [MPa] 73000 3700 25 ... 30000
Density [kg/m3] 2600 1040 (hardener) approx. 2000
1150 (resin)
Bending strength [MPa] 123
Compression strength [MPa] 130
Tensile strength [MPa] 2400 150... 200

3 Tests and test results

Test set-up: single dowel
The specimens (320 x 120 x 40 mm) were reinforced on both sides by means of glass fibre
fabric. Testing was carried out 10 days after the manufacturing. The dowel diameter was
22mm with an end distance about of 5d. Figure 3 shows how much the embedding strength
for tension load is increased and that brittle failure is avoided [table 3].
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Table 3 Comparison of different types timber joints (single dowel, ∅ 22mm)

Specimen Species Reinforcement Layer Densification Load Ratio
[Angle] [%] [N/mm2]
1 spruce 0 0 0 28,6 1,00
2 oak 0 0 0 36,9 1,29
3 spruce 0° / 90° 2 0 38,6 1,35
4 oak +45° / -45° 2 0 63,0 2,20
5 spruce 0 0 50 80,8 2,82
6 spruce +45° / -45° 2 50 89,3 3,12
7 spruce 0° / 90° 4 50 99,6 3,48
8 spruce +45° / -45° 4 50 103,0 3,60

The investigation of the embedding characteristics from two species and reinforcements
showed a proportional increase of the failure load with respect to density. The load bearing
capacity of densified reinforced spruce was 3,5 times higher than unreinforced solid spruce.
At the same time a considerable increase of embedding stiffness and ductility was achieved.

100000 spruce; 50%

4 Layer +45°/-45°
80000 spruce; 50%
2 Layer +45°/-45°
load in [N]

60000
oak; 50%
2 Layer +45°/-45°
40000
spruce; 0%
unreinforced
20000
oak; 0%
unreinforced
0
0 ,0 0 1 ,0 0 2 ,0 0 3 ,0 0 4 ,0 0 5 ,0 0 6 ,0 0
dis placem en t in [m m ]

Figure 3 Embedding characteristics of a single dowel for different species and design
parameters

Test set-up: dowel connection under shear force

The load carrying behavior of the shear connection was tested according to EN 26981.
Geometry of the sample and the test set up are shown in fig. 4. Four shear connections using
different design of the assembly zone have been investigated [see also Fig. 1]. Further results
of connections subjected to tension parallel to grain and bending were presented in [4]. The
reinforced densified joint was much stiffer and stronger than the other samples, however it
behave more brittle due to the debonding and rupture of the reinforcement.
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Figure 4: Shear specimen

shear
shear force
force testte
180

160 densified wood; 0°/90° reinforced

140
solid wood; +45°/-45°reinforced
120
solid wood; 0° / 90° reinforced
force in [kN]

100

80 solid wood

60

40

20

0
0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8
displacement in [mm
Figure 5 Load - slip - relationship of shear load

Table 4 Summery of test results (geometry 1760 x 120 x 200 mm)

Specimen Reinforcement Layer Densification Failure load Ratio Deformation
[Angle] [%] [kN] [mm]
1 0 0 0 92,2 1,00 0,7
2 0° / 90° 2 0 103,4 1,12 0,4
3 +45° / - 45° 2 0 124,0 1,35 0,7
4 0° / 90° 2 50 160,5 1,73 0,3

4 Conclusion

The experimental study on glassfibre reinforced and densified timber joints has shown that
the load carrying capacity was increased up to two times. Apart from the ultimate load,
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stiffness and ductility are improved considerably so that construction elements could be
prevented from sudden failure. The structural use of densified wood arise questions about the
bonding strength of the wood textile composite. Particularly, the connection of densified and
undensified boards which was done in this study by means of finger joints present a weak
point and must be improved.
In order to fully benefit from new technical textiles, more especially from those having an
optimal fibre orientation regarding the stress state a thorough understanding of the mechanical
behavior of the wood-textile-composite is required.

5 Literature

1. P. Haller [ed.], COST C1 - Final Report of Working Group „Timber Joints“, Semi-rigid
timber joints - structural behavior, modelling and new technologies, Dresden, 1998
2. P. Haller, Progress in the development and modelling of timber joints, Proceedings, 5th
World Conference of Timber Engineering, Montreux, Switzerland, 1998, Vol. 1, 337-344
3. P. Offermann, G. Franzke, K. Hörsting, B. Wulfhorst; New types of textile abrics for fiber
composites, SAMPE Journal, Covina/USA, 29 (1993) 1, 7-11
4. P. Haller, J. Wehsener, Use of technical textiles and densified wood for timber joints,
Proceedings, 1th RILEM Symposium on Timber Engineering, Stockholm, Schweden,
1999, 717 - 726
5. P. Haller, J. Wehsener, C.J Chen; Development of joints by compressed wood and
glassfibre reinforcement, Proceedings, Final Conference Report, COST C1, Control of
the semi rigid behaviour of connections in civil engineering, Liege, Belgium, 1998
6. J. Ehlbeck, H. Werner; Tragfähigkeit von Laubholzverbindungen mit stabför migen
Verbindungsmitteln, Forschungsbericht, Universität Karlsruhe 1992
7. P. Haller, C.J. Chen, J. Natterer; Experimental study of glass fibre reinfor-ced and
densified timber joints, Proceedings, International Wood Engineering Conference, New
Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 1996
8. Gougeon Brothers, Moderner Holzbootsbau, Verlag H. von der Linden, Wessel, Germany,
1998
9. C. J. Chen; Study of mechanical behaviors and optimization of fiber glass reinforced
timber joints; Dissertation; EPF-Lausanne, Schweiz, 1999