Enhancing resilience in timber connections with SMA dowel and DVW reinforcement

Abstract

Dowel-type timber connections are commonly found in historic buildings and require reinforcement and repair to ensure their resilience against natural disasters is maintained. This study aims to enhance the resilience of dowel-type connections by equipping them with shape memory alloy (SMA) dowels and densified veneer wood (DVW) reinforcement. The research findings reveal that the performance of SMA bars under cyclic bending is superior to that of steel, in terms of self-centring effect and ductility. Dynamic testing of the SMA-dowelled timber connections shows that connections using SMA exhibit lower residual deformation and better self-centring than those using steel. Additionally, the DVW reinforcement not only improves the self-centring but also the resistance of the SMA-dowelled connection. The comparison between solid bars and tubes shows that the solid bars perform better in terms of damping, resistance, and self-centring. These results demonstrate the potential of developing resilient timber connections and improving the performance of SMA-dowelled timber connections.