Design capacities of joints with laterally loaded nails
Capacities of joints with laterally loaded nails may be predicted using "European yield" type models (EYMs) with various levels of complexity. EYMs presume that a nail and the wood on which it bears exhibit a rigidplastic stressstrain response. Consideration is given in this paper to the "original" model published by K.W. Johansen in 1949, an empirical approximation proposed by L.R.J. Whale and coworkers in 1987, and a curtailed and "simplified" model proposed by H.J. Blass and coworkers in 1999. Predictions from the various EYMs are compared with experimentally determined ultimate capacities of single and double shear joints. Experiments covered a range of combinations of member thicknesses and two nail sizes. The impact of modelling assumptions is illustrated in the context of the Canadian timber design code. Suggestions are made regarding the necessary level of complexity for nailed joint models used in design.Key words: timber, joints, nails, yield model, ultimate limit state, design.