ORIGINAL PAPER
Behaviour of jute fibre-reinforced glued laminated timber beams under short-term and long-term loading
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Materials Strength and Structural Diagnostics, Kielce University of Technology, Poland
Submission date: 2026-01-17
Final revision date: 2026-03-05
Acceptance date: 2026-03-25
Online publication date: 2026-05-08
Corresponding author
Agnieszka Wdowiak-Postulak
Department of Materials Strength and Structural Diagnostics, Kielce University of Technology, Al. Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 7, 25-314, Kielce, Poland
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
It is important to note that the application of natural fiber–reinforced polymer (NFRP) composites has been increasing daily due to their significant benefits in civil engineering, the automotive, and aerospace industries, among others. Just like jute, they are ecological, renewable and completely or partially biodegradable. This allows them to contribute to the development of new high-performance polymer materials with excellent strength properties (e.g., tensile strength, flexural behavior, fracture toughness, and fracture resistance). Therefore, the results of experimental tests of glued beams reinforced with prestressed jute fiber rods and fabrics in bending and shear are discussed below. Twenty-four technical-scale wooden beams were used for four-point bending shear tests, each beam having a different reinforcement percentage. The study found that high performance was achieved with FRP jute reinforcement, with a single layer increasing load-bearing capacity by approximately 13 % and stiffness by approximately 12 %. A double layer provided even greater performance, by approximately 27% and 14 %, respectively. Moreover, in the case of unreinforced beams at mid-span the deflection under long-term load was 28 %, meanwhile approximately 35 % for a mid-span beam made of solid laminated timber with single jute reinforcement and approximately 36 % for a double jute reinforcement. Considering the numerical analysis, the differences between the experimental and numerical models were approximately 5 %, which provided satisfactory results for design prediction.