Moment-resisting self-drilling dowel connections between steel link beams and CLT for coupled walls

Abstract

Coupled cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls can be created by connecting steel link beams between adjacent CLT wall panels and present an efficient alternative to conventional cantilevered CLT shear walls. Effective coupling in the coupled wall system requires the beam to wall connections to have adequate strength to ensure a ductile link beam response and adequate stiffness to yield the link beams atrelatively low inter-storey drifts. Thisstudy evaluates beam to wall connections with a group 15 of self-drilling dowels(SDDs) installed through a steel knife plate to connect 200UB18 steel link beams to 5-ply CLT walls. A method for determining the connection strength is presented within a capacity design framework and compared to the results of the three experimental tests. The capacity design method was validated for the tested specimens because the damage was concentrated in the steel link beams and the connection’s peak strength was not exceeded. This study indicates that the SDD 20 connections may be a feasible beam to wall connection solution in the proposed coupled CLT wall system because the capacity protected connections had adequate strength and relatively high stiffness.