Analysis of the flexural stiffness of timber beams reinforced with carbon and basalt composite materials

In this work, an experimental study on the bending behavior of pine wood beams reinforced with carbon and basalt fiber reinforced plastics, externally glued with epoxy resins has been performed. Different grammage, unidirectional and bi-directional fabrics have been used, and one or three layers applied. The results show good behavior of basalt fiber reinforcements in the stiffness increase of timber beams, achieving similar results to those obtained with carbon fiber. Moreover, reinforcements made with bi-directional fabrics produced significant stiffness increases compared to the unidirectional fabrics. Finally, this work includes also the results obtained using the transformed section to predict the stiffness increase that the different types of reinforcement analyzed produces.