Relationship between shear strength performance and stress transfer in structural timber materials using various shear test methods

Tall, large-scale wooden buildings are becoming increasingly prevalent. Concerns have been raised regarding the potential for shear failure in the panel zone, which is attributable to the enhanced shear stress experienced by the column and beam joints. The variety of joints has increased, and differences in stress transfer between them have been investigated in full-scale joint experiments. However, considering the expense and limited availability of joint experiments, material testing is a more reasonable approach. There are several material testing methods; however, their performances differ depending on the method. Therefore, several test methods were conducted using the same member to verify the effects of the loading conditions on the shear strength and shear modulus. The results showed that the bending-type test showed higher shear strength in glulam, while the shear modulus remained comparable. The digital image correlation method showed that the stress concentration areas differed across test methods, suggesting that shear performance may have been affected by the stress concentration areas. • Digital image correlation revealed localized shear strain near the grain direction. • Such localization may lead to brittle failure when load and grain directions align. • Shear strength differences among test methods were generally insignificant. • Rocket-type and off-axis tests may yield lower shear strength for weak layers. • Shear modulus ranking varied by method, likely due to grain and lamination angles.