PSI - Issue 78

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 78 (2026) 521–527

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of XX ANIDIS Conference organizers Keywords: Timber structures; moment resisting frames; beam-to-column joints; joint mechanical classification. Abstract The global performance of timber structures is significantly influenced by the mechanical properties of joints, in terms of strength, stiffness and ductility. Therefore, accurate assessment of the structural response of timber building is possible through a full understanding of the joint behaviour. Moreover, the sizes of timber members are generally influenced by the number and type of connectors further to the strength and stiffness requirements. With specific reference to timber Moment Resisting Frames (MRF), several studies through experimental tests have been recently carried out on common timber beam-to-column joints aimed at evaluating the strength and stiffness capabilities. However, at present, standards for timber constructions still lack of a method to identify the mechanical behaviour of timber connections. To address this gap, a classification procedure for timber beam-to-column joints based on strength and stiffness has been developed, inspired by the mechanical joint classification method indicated in the Eurocode 3 for steel structures. In this paper, the proposed classification method by stiffness is applied to typical beam-to-column joint configurations, selected from a broad range of experimental studies available in the scientific literature. The results show that the most common joints can be categorized as either pinned or semi-rigid. 1. Introduction In recent decades, timber structures have seen an increasing spread in the building panorama, thanks to sustainability, high strength/weight ratio and good response against seism. However, to obtain a reliable assessment of the structural behavior of timber buildings, a deep understanding of the mechanical performances of the connections is necessary, which significantly influence both the local and global behavior of the structure. Moreover, XX ANIDIS Conference Mechanical classification of timber beam-to-column joints Giacomo Iovane a *, Beatrice Faggiano a a University of Naples Federico II, Department of Structure for Engineering and Architecture, 80125, Naples, Italy

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 081-7682437. E-mail address: giacomo.iovane@unina.it

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of XX ANIDIS Conference organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.12.067