PSI - Issue 73

Marek Johanides et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 73 (2025) 38–44 Marek Johanides and Antonín Lokaj/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2025) 000–000

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with the required shape. This plate was anchored using bolts, and the semi-rigid connection struts were subsequently attached to it using 24 bolts with a diameter of 8 mm. The connection was pre-designed and dimensioned to withstand a load four times greater than the estimated force required to cause failure, ensuring sufficient safety. The entire steel assembly was installed on a reinforced concrete floor and positioned at a precise distance from the press head, so that the press would apply force exactly at the intended point on the front of the structure. A schematic representation of the experimental setup is provided in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Deployment of fasteners.

3. Experimental testing The individual experiments were conducted at the Center of Building Experiments, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. Fig. 4 presents Experiment A (a), which used a combination of bolts and dowels, and Experiment B (b), which used a full-threaded screw, both shown prior to static loading. These images depict the unreinforced experimental specimens, while the reinforced specimens are shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 3, the applied force F is represented schematically by an arrow. In practice, the load was applied using a steel cylinder with a diameter of 100 mm. To reduce local damage to the timber surface, a 10 mm thick rubber washer was placed beneath the steel cylinder. The load area of the steel plate corresponds to typical structural design conditions— specifically, it resembles the contact surface of a load-bearing column.

Bolts and dowels

Full-threaded screws

Fig. 4. Experimental specimen: (a) experiment A using bolts and dowels; and (b) experiment B using full-threaded screws. ( a ) ( b )