Design of inter-component load-bearing connections in prefabricated single-family houses (Civil Engineering Project Topics)

For the transfer of horizontal loads acting on a timber building the connections between the prefabricated timber elements play an important role. In this work the standard wall-to-substrate, wall-to-wall, wall-to-flooring/flooring-to-wall and roof-to-wall connections of three investigated timber building companies are analysed according to their force transmission capacities and applicability during the assembly process.

The investigated connections are used for single-family houses with a maximum height of two storeys. Although the horizontal loading and thereby resulting uplift forces do not reach the sizes that have to be handled for multi-storey buildings, especially the analysis of the wall-to-substrate connections led to critical results.

In the case of relatively high uplift forces at specific positions along the bottom of a building, the fasteners in connection with the dead load of the building can fail to provide a sufficient resistance against uplifting. Further calculations are needed to prove the contribution of a larger percentage of a building as well as parts of lateral walls to the stabilisation against uplift. Also, the standardization of inter-component connections between planar timber frame elements should be pursued to increase the quality of timber frame buildings.

Source: Linnaeus University
Author: Poggenburg, Julia

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