Numerical analysis of the mechanical response of wood glulam beams reinforced through the thickness by FRP rods

Abstract

The modern use of through-thickness reinforcement in wood glulam (glued laminated) beams, bridging the potential delamination crack faces, has shown to be an effective technological solution to improve their interlaminar fracture strength. In this paper, the behaviour of wood glulam beams is investigated from an experimental and numerical point of view, comparing the mechanical response of unreinforced and reinforced (by FRP rods) beams subjected to four points bending tests. For the numerical analysis, a simple two-phases (joint and reinforcement) interface model has been formulated and implemented in a finite element code. In particular, the classical interface model for adhesive joint, able to describe the debonding between adjacent laminae, has been enriched to take into account the heterogeneity due to the transversal reinforcement.