Design method for bolted connections loaded perpendicular-to-grain: Discussion

This paper and recent papers by the same authors (Quenneville and Mohammad 2000; Mohammad and Quenneville 2001) present a tremendous amount of valuable laboratory data on the subject of bolted connection behaviour in timber. The observations of behaviour and failure mechanisms are particularly relevant. The authors present new design equations, based on failure mechanisms, to predict connection strength - an improvement on the current code requirements found in O86.1 (CSA 1994). These new equations were shown to produce improved results in the paper's figures; however, the equations lack a detailed analytical basis.