Creep Response of Glulam Beams Reinforced with Pre-stressed FRP-Wood Composite Laminate

Enhancement of strength and stiffness of glued-laminated beams (glulams) by the addition of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites has become a common practice. New developments have been ongoing to further improve the performance of glulams. One recent development has been the utilization of pre-stressed composites for maximizing the enhancement.;A comprehensive series of experimental investigations were conducted to determine the creep parameters for the FRP composites and wood species employed in fabrication of the PWCL. Finite element models (FEM) were subsequently constructed for predicting the long-term response of the PWCL, as well as the entire reinforced glulam system, under an externally applied load and constant environmental conditions. The FEM were developed in the Abaqus environment and the residual stress distribution was modeled in a step-wise scheme, corresponding to each step of PWCL and beam fabrication, as well as the in-situ response under the applied loading condition. A power law creep model was incorporated in the FEM. The integrity of the creep model used in the simulation was verified by the experimental results obtained from the tests performed on aramid FRP reinforced glulam beams.;The study presented in this dissertation investigates the performance of a novel integral sub-laminated system referred to as pre-stressed FRP-wood composite laminate (PWCL), in the context of its own system, as well as its incorporation for reinforcing glulams. This system is comprised of pre-stressed high performance fibres (e.g., aramid), sandwiched and glued within layers of pre-compressed wood strands. The resulting sub-laminated system may be incorporated in the tension zone of glulam beams. As a result, the long-term performance of the composite beam that may be affected by the creep response of the pre-stressed system must be established.