Effects of Reinforcement Geometry on Strength and Stiffness in Adhesively Bonded Steel-Timber Flexural Beams

A finite element model is developed to analyse, as a function of volume fraction, the effects of reinforcement geometry and arrangement within a timber beam. The model is directly validated against experimental equivalents and found to never be mismatched by more than 8% in respect to yield strength predictions. Yield strength increases linearly as a function of increasing reinforcement volume fraction, while the flexural modulus follows more closely a power law regression fit. Reinforcement geometry and location of reinforcement are found to impact both the flexural properties of timber-steel composite beams and the changes due to an increase in volume fraction.