Stiffness Prediction of Wooden Dowel Connections with Beam-on-Foundation Models

The renewed interest in pure wood connections has brought wooden dowels back into focus. They exhibit satisfactory mechanical properties in terms of strength and ductility. However, while significant research has been dedicated to capacity models, stiffness models have received less attention. Existing models are often overly simplified and fail to predict the stiffness of such connections accurately. To address this gap, this study develops several beam-on-foundation models with linear embedment to simulate the stiffness of pure wood shear connections. The tested connections are assembled using glulam and three types of wooden dowels: laminated densified wood, birch, and beech. This work aims to assess the influence of modeling assumptions on prediction accuracy, particularly focusing on the effects of dowel shear deformability and the choice of the subgrade stiffness. Specifically, the authors discuss whether the subgrade stiffness should be derived from steel-wood embedment tests, as recommended by existing standards, or from wood-wood embedment tests. This study highlights the limitations of current stiffness prediction models for wooden dowel connections and underscores the need for semiempirical ones tailored to wooden dowel connections.