Study on the strength of glued laminated timber beams with round holes: proposal of the design formula for the splitting strength.

When a glued laminated timber (GLT) beam with a round hole is subjected to a shear force and bending moment, the hole will crack and fail due to a large tensile stress perpendicular to the grain and shear stresses. If the stresses acting on the hole are known, it is possible to estimate the fracture load. However, it is necessary to obtain the stresses acting on the hole by finite element analysis, which is very time consuming. In this study, to easily estimate the fracture load, we proposed a formula to estimate the bearing capacity at the time of a hole fracture by obtaining the stress acting on the hole through finite element analysis and an approximate formula. The validity of the proposed formula was verified using the existing experimental data of a GLT beam. As a result, it was confirmed that the proposed equation can estimate the fracture load of GLT beams in Japan and that the proposed equation can estimate the fracture load of GLT beams in countries other than Japan with some accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]