Experimental and numerical analysis of the unreinforced and reinforced notched timber beam by a screw

Abstract

Timber is highly anisotropic. It behaves differently in diverse directions. Tension and compression perpendicular to the grain present a low strength with respect to the ones parallel to the grain. To compensate for the lack, the self-tapping screw is an excellent choice for reinforcing the timber. This paper focuses on the notched timber beam with the experimental and numerical results. In the first part, the experimental results of the unreinforced notched beams and the screw reinforced notched beams under bending load will be presented. The second part describes a numerical study in which a 3D finite element (FE) model and a fast FE model of the notched beam reinforced by a self-tapping screw are realised. In particular, the fast FE model is simplified with the use of the screw’s model as a beam element having one translational degree of freedom. This model not only presents a good result in comparison with the experiment as well as the 3D FE model but also requires six times less computational times as compared to the 3D FE model.

Keywords

• cohesive zone
• finite element method
• selftapping screw
• timber behaviour