ABSTRACT
Wood and wood products are among the most important construction materials. Wood is generally used in frames, buildings, truss roof structures in buildings, bridges, towers, railroad infrastructures and many more applications. Damage and failure behaviour of wood members in tensile, compressive or shear loading are extremely important to account for in wooden structures subjected to high working stresses. Structural details involving wood member’s connections also require special attention for a safe design. For example, damage under tensile, compressive or shear loading can occur at the joints (connector plates) or within the lumber members. Consequently, predictive methods and models for the simulation of the structural behaviour of these elements, such as finite element analysis with cohesive zone modelling, can be viewed as being essential tools.
