Flexural responses and pseudo-ductile performance of lattice-web reinforced GFRP-wood sandwich beams

This paper investigates the pseudo-ductile flexural behavior of innovative sandwich beams using wood as core material and glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) as surface skins and inner lattice-webs. The beams were prepared by a vacuum assisted resin infusion process. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the stiffness and strength properties of the composite sandwich beams and reference wood beams under four-point bending. Ten sandwich beams were tested with different core configurations in comparison to two reference wood beams. The results showed that implementation of GFRP webs in the sandwich beams considerably improved their flexural performance, in association with a pseudo-ductile failure process and certain residual load-carrying capacity. Analytical formulas were developed to predict the bending stiffness and capacity of GFRP-wood sandwich beams. A comparison of the predicted and experimental results showed good agreement for mechanical characteristics of the GFRP-wood sandwich beams tested under four-point bending.