Wood structures have played an important role in construction. The strengthening of wooden beams using composite materials is designed to enhance both capacity and as well as flexural stiffness. Composite wood-steel structural members have potential to combine the advantages of ready availability, easy working, and simple joining along with strength and stiffness.
The paper presents the results of the work carried out to study and analyze flexural strength properties of rectangular teak wood beam (RTWB), rectangular hollow sectioned thin walled steel tube (RHSTWST), and rectangular teak wood filled in rectangular hollow sectioned thin walled steel tube. A wood filled steel tube (WFT) is developed for the purpose of investigation of flexural properties. Desired flexural properties of teak wood, carbon steel have been obtained experimentally and compared with already researched and presented data. The flexural properties of wood filled thin steel tube (WFT) have been determined theoretically and experimentally.
The WFT specimens are modeled in ANSYS and the analysis is done to verify the experimental data. Percentage error of these two methods is well within the acceptable limit.
From the work carried out it can be concluded that the stiffness and strength of WFT is more compared to standalone rectangular teak wood beam or Rectangular hollow sectioned thin steel tube. An application for automobile hood is developed using the developed material. The WFT composite shows lower deflection compared to steel.