THE INFLUENCE OF THE NUMBER AND POSITION OF DOWELS ON THE BENDING MOMENT CAPACITY OF HEAT-TREATED WOOD DOWEL JOINTS

In this work, the influence of the number of dowels and the option to place the dowels in the cross section of part on the bending moment capacity of heat-treated wood dowel joints was analysed. The joints, which were made of heat-treated ash, were tested by means of a universal testing machine.The ultimate failure load and the moment arms were used to figure out the bending moment capacity of the joints loaded in compression or in tension. The number of dowels affected the tensile strength of the L-shaped heat-treated wood joints. The modality to place the dowels in the cross section of rail, namely, in collinearity or in a triangular shape, did not significantly affect the strength of the heat-treated wood dowel joints.