Adhesively bonded joints composed of wooden load-bearing elements

Joining timber structural elements using mechanical fasteners goes against the anisotropic and fibrous nature of the material. Adhesive bonding is by far better adapted, since it permits a smoother load transfer. However, due to the not yet fully understood behavior of wood-adhesive joints, there is still no generally recognized design method to predict the strength of such joints. As a contribution to help close this research gap, the authors have carried out experimental and analytical investigations on adhesively bonded double lap joints composed of timber. The paper addresses the question of the influence of the overlap length and the adhesive thickness on the strength of adhesively bonded joints and the corresponding stress distribution under the bonded splice.