Analytical Approach to Predict Pre–Camber Deflection of the Pre-stressed Glulam Beams

• Main Author: Anshari B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Petra Christian University 2015-01-01
• Series: Civil Engineering Dimension
• Subjects: Compressed wood (CW); CW reinforced glulam beam; pre-stressed; pre-camber.
• Online Access: http://puslit2.petra.ac.id/ejournal/index.php/civ/article/view/19207

A new approach to reinforce glulam timber beams using compressed wood (CW) has been developed by the Author. The compressed wood blocks are inserted into pre-cut holes on the top of glulam beams to produce pre-camber and to generate initial tensile and compressive stresses on the top and on the bottom extreme fiber of the glulam beam, respectively. A simple analytical approach has been developed to predict pre-camber deflections of the beams reinforced with three CW blocks. Assuming that moisture-dependent expansion of the CW block creates an interactive linear pressure between the glulam beam and the CW block, this would generate a pair of eccentric force away from the neutral axis of the beam. It is shown that the pre-camber deflection predicted at midspan of the short beams with various reinforcing arrangements give good agreement with the measured pre-camber from previous experimental results.