Investigation on the bending capacities of the timber beams reinforced with aluminium plate

In recent years, aluminium alloy became an emerging construction material. In order to repair or strengthen the wood beam with an appropriate material, six timber beams reinforced with different thicknesses of aluminium plates and connections between the timber beams and aluminium plates were tested in this article. To investigate the ultimate bending capacity of timber beams which were reinforced using the aluminium plates with the thicknesses of 3 mm and 8 mm, the influences of adhesive, screw, adhesive and screw on the beading capacities are studied. The ultimate bending capacity of timber beams reinforced using the aluminium plates with the thicknesses of 3 mm and 8 mm was investigated. Three plain timber beams were also tested for the comparison. An analytical model has been developed for predicting the ultimate bending capacity of the timber beam reinforced with aluminium plate by using the adhesive and screw together connection. The results indicate that the initial bending stiffness and ultimate bending capacity of the reinforced timber beams can be enhanced obviously. Compared with the beams without reinforcement, the initial bending secant stiffness of the beams reinforced with aluminium plate was enhanced by 109% maximally and the average increase was 55%. The ultimate bending capacities of the beams reinforced with aluminium plate were enhanced by 57% maximally and the average increase was 30%. The most effective way to enhance the ultimate bending capacity of the reinforced timber beam is to use the adhesive and screw together connection. The strain distributions along cross section of the timber part of the reinforced beam were approximately linear.