Reinforcement of Wood with Fiberglass

Due to the need for high strength and high stiffness wood members for many demanding structural applications, this study was undertaken to determine the utility of fiberglass as a reinforcement for wood. The specific objectives were to investigate the potential of fiber glass reinforcement to improve the tensile strength and bending stiffness of wood members. Composite members were made using western hemlock cores with Douglas-fir veneers on each face and fiberglass layers sandwiched between veneer and core. Fiberglass reinforcement levels of 3.5 percent and 7.0 percent by volume were used. The 6-foot-long core material was made up of two 3-foot lengths joined together with a low quality finger-joint to serve as a trigger mechanism. Phenol-resorcinol resin was used for all gluelines. Stiffness of bending members was increased significantly using relatively small volumes of fiberglass. Both the veneer and the fiberglass substantially increased the tensile strength of the finger- jointed cores. No delamination of the fiberglass occurred when the composite was subjected to cyclic vacuum- pressure soak treatment.

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