Steel profiles for repairing deteriorated timber beam ends

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a procedure for the upgrading of timber floor joists with decayed ends using steel profiles connected to timber from the upper side of the flooring. The reinforcement consists on a steel S275 U cold formed shape with a plate inserted into timber and connected by means of screwing into the wood. For the experimental verification 30 beams were tested in bending obtaining the stiffness and load carrying capacity. The specimens were divided into three groups. The first was composed by 10 pieces of glued laminated timber of Spruce with 180 x 200 mm cross section; the second one was composed by 10 pieces of sawn timber of Scots pine with the same cross section; and the third one was constituted by 10 solid timber beams of genus Pine with 130 x 150 mm cross section, from a 120 years old building in Madrid. Each group of 10 pieces was divided in two groups of 5 beams. The first sub-group was constituted by the beams with the whole length as a reference group. The pieces of the second one had a shorter length that was substituted by the steel extension. It can be concluded that the steel profile reinforcement can solve the problems derivates from the unsafe support caused by wooden decay affecting a certain and limited length (approximately from 10 to 20% of the length).