Dynamic characteristics of CFRP-Strengthened wooden beams: Experimental and numerical study

Physical and chemical factors can cause traditional timber constructions to lose structural integrity. Knowing the dynamic properties of the building components is vital to avoid damage to the buildings from dynamic effects, a subset of physical effects. In this work, spruce and scotch pine wooden beams that had been strengthened in three distinct ways with carbon fiber strengthened polymer (CFRP) were investigated for changes in their dynamic properties. For this, CFRP was used to strengthening unstrengthened wooden beams in the form of bottom confinement, U-shaped confinement, and full confinement after the dynamic parameters of the beams were determined. By using experimental modal analysis with both freefree and fixed-fixed boundary conditions, the beams' initial natural frequencies were identified.