Monotonic and Cyclic Behavior of Glubam-Steel-Glubam Pin-Jointed Connections Loaded Along the Main-Fiber Direction

Glued laminated bamboo (glubam) products are high strength but brittle; therefore, ductile joints are inevitably required for the application of glubam structures. In this research, a novel slotted glubam-steel-glubam pin joint with expanded tubes was investigated. The GSG joints were subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. The test results indicated that the brittle fracture failure patterns, such as splitting and row shear failure, of glubam joints could be effectively avoided by using steel tubes of appropriate thickness and multidirectional laminated bamboo panels. Three different methods were compared to determine the yield strength of the connections for design applications and the Farthest Point Method (FPM) appeared to be the most suitable for the glubam structures. The estimates based on the yield model and fracture mechanics to give the yield strength and fracture resistance of the joints are also discussed. The prevention of premature brittle failure of glubam connections can be achieved by allowing the fracture resistance of the bamboo members to be appropriately greater than the yield strength of the steel tubes. This research has demonstrated that this GSG steel tube pin joint has well-balanced strength and ductility performance, and thus has promising potential for use in seismic regions.