Fire Performance of Timber Connections, Part 2: Thermal and Structural Modelling Available to Purchase

This paper presents models for calculating the fire resistance ratings of bolted timber connections based on fire-resistance test results carried out recently. In the first phase of the work, a three-dimensional finite-element thermal model was employed to analyze heat transfer within bolted Wood-Steel-Wood (WSW) and Steel-Wood-Steel (SWS) connections. The thermal model was found to provide good predictions when comparing the calculated temperatures and residual cross-section dimensions of timber connections with the experiment results. In the next phase, an embedment strength reduction model was used to calculate the load-bearing capacity of WSW and SWS bolted connections by including the temperature profiles generated from the heat transfer model. Different relationships of wood embedding strength as a function of temperatures were used in the structural model. The comparisons with experimental results showed that Noren's approach seemed to predict fire resistances of bolted timber connections in good agreement. The structural model combined with the heat transfer model presented in this paper can be used for the parametric study of the performance of timber connections under fire exposure.