Experimental investigation on the effect of accelerated ageing conditions on the pull-out capacity of compressed wood and hardwood dowel type fasteners

Abstract The widespread use of adhesives in timber construction has negative implications for the end-of-life disposal or re-use structural components. To promote circular bioeconomy, it is preferable to substitute with more sustainable alternatives such as wood-based connectors. Today, robotic fabrication technologies facilitate development dowel-laminated (DLT) products whereby hardwood dowels are used connect laminates a adhesives. In recent years, thermo-mechanical densification wood resulted significant improvements mechanical performance wood. This modified product often termed compressed (CW) shape-recovery effect which may be beneficial DLT and timber-timber connections improved friction fit time. test hypothesis, accelerated ageing tests were carried out on CW-timber hardwood-timber dowel type subjected variable climate conditions. Finally, capacity was assessed using pull-out tests. Results show that leads continuous expansion CW facilitates substrate yielding higher loads when compared dowels.