Hollow steel dowels — a new application in semi-rigid timber connections

Dowel type fasteners used in timber joints are traditionally of solid cross section. The rigidity of those with a larger diameter increases the chances of brittle failure in the timber components. Hollow fasteners of variable wall thickness, whilst maintaining the required timber performance, offer variable fastener rigidity and the likelihood of enhanced joint ductility. This paper describes a finite element based model which was validated against the results of a series of tests on single hollow steel dowel timber joints and then used to conduct a parametric study of the effect of fastener wall thickness on joint performance.