The paper reports on the activities of the RILEM technical committee “Reinforcement of
Timber Elements in Existing Structures”. The main objective of the committee is to coordinate the
efforts to improve the reinforcement practice of timber structural elements. Recent developments
related to structural reinforcements can be grouped into three categories: (i) addition of new
structural systems to support the existing structure; (ii) configuration of a composite system; and
(iii) incorporation of elements to increase strength and stiffness. The paper specifically deals with
research carried out at the Bern University of Applied Sciences Switzerland (BFH), the University
of Minho Portugal (UniMinho), and the University of Trento Italy (UNITN). Research at BFH was
devoted to improve the structural performance of rounded dovetail joints by means of different
reinforcement methods: i) self-tapping screws, ii) adhesive layer, and iii) a combination of selftapping
screws and adhesive layer. Research at UNITN targeted the use of “dry” connections for
timber-to-timber composites, specifically reversible reinforcement techniques aimed at increasing
the load-bearing capacity and the bending stiffness of existing timber floors. At UniMinho, double
span continuous glulam slabs were strengthened with fibre-reinforced-polymers. All three examples demonstrate the improved structural performance of timber elements after reinforcing them.The research on RDJ was funded by BFH and supported by the staff at the BFH " tech-park" Huesser Holzbau AG and ArundaR. The research at UNITN was carried out by the Timber Research Group (in particular by M. Piazza, R. Tomasi, I. Giongo) within the framework of the RELUIS Project 2011-2013, which is financed by the Italian Emergency Management Agency (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile) and supported by Rothoblaas srl
