LAUSR

Abstract The advances of timber engineering in the field of tall buildings raised a need for high performance connections that can accommodate increased demands due to higher loads and longer spans. A semi-rigid connection with glued-in rods was designed to fulfill these requirements. Moment-rotation behavior of this connection was investigated in a series of quasi-static cyclic tests. A moment-resisting connection was established between timber columns and steel base plates. Three different timber products, including hardwood and softwood species, and two different rod diameters were used. The columns were subjected to shear force and bending, to simulate the loading conditions of a column in a frame under lateral loads. The tests were performed with increasing rotation demand on the column until the failure. The connections provided high moment capacity and rotational stiffness. All of the tested specimens demonstrated ductile response, while the connections with hardwood performed especially well. No strength degradation was observed in multiple cycles, therefore the hysteretic energy dissipation was significant in cycles with high target displacement. The nature of the connection response was studied in detail and an analytical model was developed to describe the relationship between the moment and the rotation at the column base. The model is capable to predict the envelope of the cyclic response and corresponds well to the experimental results.