In the present paper tensile stresses perpendicular to the grain in reinforced double-tapered beams made of glued laminated timber are discussed. The beams are analysed using the finite element method within the linear elasticity theory with the influence of orthotropic material properties. The main objective is to assess the influence of transverse reinforcement on the values and distributions of the analysed stresses and to identify the most efficient scheme of reinforcement. The obtained results prove that, with the use of the proposed tools, it is possible to assess the level of stress, including delaminating stress, and to indicate the areas of occurrence of such stress with high precision.

The paper presents numerical and experimental research on glulam delamination in a double lap connection with predominant shear stresses. Laboratory tests and wide literature survey enabled to determine timber and glue joint parameters. Cohesive zone theory, generally used for epoxy matrix and fiber reinforced composites, was adopted to modelling glue layer delamination in glulam elements. Numerical models were validated with laboratory tests.

Steel-glulam structure is a new type of composite structure,glulam have lateral support effect on steel plate, that can prevent premature buckling of steel plate and improve the stability of steel structure. In order to study the influence of column’s cross-section form on the seismic performance of steel-glulam composite beam-to-column exterior joint, the column’s cross-section form was taken as the basic variable (glulam rectangular section , H-beam section and H-beam-glulam rectangular section were used respectively). The pseudo-static tests of three composite beam-to-column joints were carried out to observe the different failure modes, and obtain the mechanical performance indexes. The experiment results demonstrated that: The energy dissipation capacity of beam-to-column exterior joint composed of glulam column was the worst, the ultimate bearing capacity and stiffness were the lowest. The ultimate bearing capacity of the exterior joints formed by the H-beam column and the H-beam-glulam composite column were both high, and their ductility coefficients were similar, while the former had better energy dissipation capacity.