Defining appropriate limit states for design of timber connections in Australia and New Zealand

Both Australia and New Zealand design standards for timber structures are in limit states format, but these are first generation soft conversions of previous working stress design standards. It is anticipated that development of a new combined Australian and New Zealand standard for design of timber structures will commence shortly. There is a shared view amongst some researchers that the current approach is limited, since it does not distinguish between serviceability and “ultimate” strength events and is not particularly relevant for connections in high performance timber structures. This paper discusses these matters and presents an overview of relevant literature andresearch work that has been undertaken to date, with recommendations for future development.