Wood-fibre composite moulded connectors for roundwood trusses Part 1: Structural and material design

Timber structures and buildings, made from sustainable forestry, might be the solution for today's ecological challenges when their renewable materials are locally processed with low energy consumption in production. The current market shows a dominance of rectangular cross-sections in engineered timber solutions. Roundwood, as traditional material in the past, is not common anymore due to missing applications in modern structures, lost knowledge in handcraft skills and high costs of CNC-based manufacturing. However, solid timber with round cross-sections outperforms other engineered wood products, such as glued laminated products, in terms of energy consumption and environmental aspects. To overcome restrictions in joint technologies and to increase the usability of roundwood, especially in truss structures, new-type connectors have been developed. The investigations split in two research topics: the connection design in roundwood with modified bonded-in rods and the design of wood–fibre composite moulded connectors, presented in this paper.