Quasi-brittleness of glued laminated timber beams subjected to bending

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • L. Blank - , ETH Zurich (Author)
  • R. Jockwer - , ETH Zurich (Author)
  • A. Frangi - , ETH Zurich (Author)
  • G. Fink - , Aalto University (Author)

Abstract

The bending strength of glued laminated timber is size dependent. It is well known that one reason is the scatter of the material properties due to the natural growth characteristics of timber which leads to a size effect according to the Weibull weakest link theory. In this paper, it is demonstrated that glued laminated timber also exhibits the size effect associated with a quasi-brittle material behavior. Experimental tests on glued laminated timber beams in different sizes are compared with finite element simulations. The specific distribution of weak links in each beam was included in the simulations. In this way, the Weibull type size effect is automatically taken into account. The simulations which consider quasi-brittleness through the constitutive law were able to predict well the outcome of the experiments over the full range of beam sizes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInsights and Innovations in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, SEMC 2016
EditorsAlphose Zingoni
PublisherCRC Press/Balkema
Pages1714-1719
Number of pages6
ISBN (print)9781138029279
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

SeriesInternational Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC)

Conference

Title6th International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, SEMC 2016
Duration5 - 7 September 2016
CityCape Town
CountrySouth Africa

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-0767-684X/work/168208030