Evaluating the Performance of Category D Timber Connections

Category D timber connections consist mainly of proprietary products in the form of steel brackets. There is limited guidance on how to test and evaluate the performance of these products in the Australian standard for the testing of timber mechanical fasteners and connectors, AS 1649:2001. This document is long overdue for a revision. A method for the evaluation of the performance of these products is described in this paper aiming at replacing those given in AS 1649:2001. The method uses prototype testing as the basis for developing design data for specific products. The issues discussed in this paper are those that differ from AS 1649 recommendations, including: (i) definitions of characteristic values and how to evaluate them from test data, (ii) selection of timber for testing and necessary corrections for the density of timber, and (iii) derivation of design values.