Toughness of timber beams strengthened with jute fibers

Abstract EN

This research involves investigating the toughness behavior of timber beamsstrengthened by jute fibers with various forms of strengthening.

Ten timberspecimens with dimensions (70×100×1000) mm are divided into four groupsand loaded under a third point loading.

The experimental program was carriedout to investigate shear and flexural strengthening effects on toughness, toughness indices, ultimate loads, and the mid-span deflection of the testedbeams.

One beam as a control beam (un-strengthened beam), four specimensare wrapped in U technique in single and double layers along the whole lengthof the beam in full and strips wrapping technique, three specimens are wrappedin full technique along the whole length of the beam in full and strips wrappingtechnique, three timber specimens wrapped in flexural strengtheningtechnique with two, four, and six layers of jute fibers.

The results show thatjute fibers strengthening increases the toughness ratios of timber beams byabout (175% -320% ), (190% -401% ), and (106% -240% ) for U, full, andflexural strengthening techniques, respectively, at the ultimate loads comparedwith the control beam.

Furthermore, it is found that the highest toughness ratiois when the beam is wrapped in full strengthening technique