Delamination buckling of FRP layer in laminated wood beams

An analytical solution for predicting delamination buckling and growth of a thin fiber reinforced-plastic (FRP) layer in laminated wood beams under bending is presented. Based on a strength-of-materials approach, displacement functions for a delaminated beam under four-point bending are derived. Using force and displacement compatibility conditions, an explicit form relating the applied transverse load with the delamination buckling load is established. An explicit form of the strain-energy release rate is presented to study the delamination growth in beams under bending. The analytical solution is evaluated using experimental data for glued-laminated timber (glulam) beams reinforced with a thin fiber-reinforced plastic composite on the compression face. The delamination growth in bending is shown to behave differently to that of the in-plane loading case.