Glulam beams adhesively bonded by birch plywood plates in moment-resisting beam-to-beam connections

The design of timber connections is of vital importance in timber structures. Bonded connections exhibit the advantages of lower cost, higher load-bearing capacity, and higher stiffness compared to conventional mechanical connections. However, the potential of the bonded connections has yet to be fully exploited, not only due to their sensitivity to the adhesive types and process-related parameters but also due to the lack of studies regarding the structural performance of the bonded connection in various loading conditions. In this paper, birch plywood plates were utilized to adhesively connect two glulam beam halves to create a longer span. Plywood made of birch was chosen because birch is highly resourced on the Eurasian continent, with its mechanical properties better than most softwoods. Specifically, glulam beams were connected by birch plywood plates at mid-span and then loaded in four-point bending. Four test series with two different bonding areas and birch plywood face grain orientations were carried out. The bonded region was designed as the weakest part to investigate the failure modes, moment capacity, bending stiffness, and moment-rotation angle relationships. Furthermore, numerical models were developed to predict the structural behaviors in the linear elastic stage, while analytical models were proposed and subsequently modified to predict the moment-carrying capacities. Both numerical and analytical models displayed satisfactory agreement with the test results. •Presented a feasible construction of bonding separate spruce glulam together with birch plywood plates.•Complex failure modes observed on the bonded surface and discussed in terms of wood failure percentage.•Numerical models well predicting the bending stiffness were proposed and validated.•The analytical moment capacities showed satisfactory agreement with the test results.