Recent advances on the prediction of the splitting strength of beams loaded perpendicular-to-grain by dowel-type and nail-plate connections

摘要

The paper presents concisely a new semi-empirical prediction formula for the splitting strength of beams loaded perpendicular-to-grain by both dowel-type and nail-plate connections. The formula is derived by means of a survey on the data of main experimental researches available in literature. However, it takes also into account the main results of a numerical study performed by means of crack propagation analyses. The formula is initially derived for beams loaded by single-dowel connections and then modified by means of two correction factors to cover the case of beams loaded by multiple-dowel connections. The prediction ability of the new semi-empirical formula is illustrated and discussed and finally, a design proposal is derived and compared with experimental results.