Abstract

Embedment strength is an important parameter in the design of dowel-type connections for timber construction. Coconut wood, abundant in South Asia, demonstrates good mechanical performance and could be used for construction. However, no standards are currently available for predicting coconut wood embedment properties. Consequently, this research aims to identify the best analytical model to predict the embedment strength of coconut wood (monocot). To achieve this, the investigation employed dowels with diameters of 10 mm and 14 mm and incorporated data from 12 mm and 16 mm from previous studies. Furthermore, a range of methods, including single variate, multivariate, linear regression, nonlinear regression, and cross-validation methods, were implemented. The findings suggested that single linear and multivariate non-linear equations provided the best fit and reliability for parallel- and perpendicular-to-gain loading, respectively.