Capacity prediction of welded timber joints

Linear vibration welding of timber structural elements provides new opportunities to potentially achieve structural joints. This paper investigates to which extent welded joints can be considered for load-bearing structural joints. On the basis of a series of experimental and numerical investigations on a series of welded single-lap joints, failure modes were identified, and the associated failure criterion was quantified. A probabilistic method subsequently allowed accurately predicting the capacity of the tested wood welded joints exclusively based on objective input data, including an estimate of the scattering due to the material’s inherent variability.
Introduction