Durability of timber connections

In contrary to steel or concrete buildings, the performance of a timber building is significantly defined by the stiffness of the connections. The design of those connections for residual buildings has been covered quite comprehensively by COST Action FP1402, WG3 with a focus on functionality, strength, and stiffness. Comparing tall timber buildings with residual timber buildings, however, there are
– higher loads (vertical and lateral).
– higher necessity looking on fatigue.
– more inspection and maintenance, see COST Action FP1101.
– limitations regarding the design, because not all materials and construction methods (e.g., ceilings made of timber beams) are suitable.
– further design criteria, such as a possible consideration of deformations from compression perpendicular to the grain, see Windeck and Blass (2022).
– critical design points which are not common to consider, such as the deformation resulting from different settlements of concrete shafts and timber-constructions.
– newly arising questions with an increasing size and number of reinforcements such as shown by Danzer at al. (2020), who found a reduction of the load-carrying capacity of about 65 % - 83 % due to the restraining effect with an increasing number of reinforcements and size.
Those aspects open new questions regarding the durability of tall timber buildings.