Wood is a material increasingly used in the construction field for its interesting mechanical properties and environmental benefits. Most wooden structures use a variety of joining methods, from contact joints (dowel) to friction techniques (threaded rods). Modeling these structures remains very difficult due to the non-linear and anisotropic behaviour of wood coupled with the highly complex phenomenon of wood-steel interaction, which leads to applying high security factors when designing structures. This paper presents three-dimensional finite element simulations of wood specimens and dowel embedment tests using an elastic-plastic and damage model in order to simulate the nonlinear behaviour of wood interacting with a metal connection. The wood constitutive law relies upon orthotropic material parameters, associated plasticity and continuum damage mechanics (CDM) to take into account the following properties of wood : anisotropy, brittle failure in tension, plasticity and ductile failure in compression. The model used in this paper is implemented as a user subroutine of the finite element software ZSoil. The material parameters of the model are determined through a Bayesian inversion analysis based on experimental and numerical data from uniaxial compression tests on glulam samples. The constitutive model with the calibrated material parameters are used to numerically simulate dowel embedment experimental tests on glulam. The results demonstrate the model's capability to reasonably approximate embedment tests and the nonlinear behaviour of wood, opening up interesting prospects for engineers to better understand and optimize structures.