Composite reinforcement of timber in bending

A promising use for high performance composite materials is to reinforce timber beams. The present paper studies the use of glass fibres to reinforce sawn timber sections. Consideration is given to strength phenomena of commercial timber alone and in reinforced sections in bending and shear. Experimental results are presented for two sizes and qualifies of wood beams using matched samples of pairs of beams, reinforced and not. Results establish that the wood itself in the composite section shows a great strength increase, and that the increase in moment resistance of the reinforced beams is far greater than that predicted by simple models.