Bending behavior of steel bars reinforced Glulam beams considering the homogenized cross section

The use of reinforcements in glued laminated timber (Glulam) beams has enabled the increase of mechanical performance of this type of structure. This work aimed to evaluate the performance of Glulam beams reinforced with steel bars, having applied the homogenization of the cross section. Therefore, the experimental results of reinforced Glulam beams under static bending were investigated by the finite element method. The vertical displacements and the bending normal stresses obtained by numerical modeling were slightly smaller than previously performed experimental results and, such differences were smaller with the increase of the ratio of reinforcement. It was concluded that the results of the numerical modeling applied with the homogenized section were as accurate as the results of the simulation with the discretized materials, highlighting the advantage of using a less complex mesh for the modeling of reinforced Glulam beams.