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Traditional glulam beam connection mode has a weak ability to transfer bending moment, leading to insufficient joint stiffness and mostly in the form of simply supported beams. To make full use of material strength, a novel prestressed glulam continuous beam was proposed. On this basis, this paper put forward a new method to further improve the mechanical performance of the beams by controlling prestress. According to the estimated ultimate loads of the beams, six different control range values were formulated, and 12 continuous beams were tested for flexural performance. The effects of prestressing control on the failure modes, ultimate load capacity, and load versus deformation relationships of the glulam continuous beams were analyzed. The test results indicated that the flexural performance of the beams with prestressed control was significantly improved compared to the uncontrolled beams, the ultimate load was enhanced by 13.60%–45.11%, and the average steel wire stress at failure was increased from 70% of the designed tensile strength to 94%. Combined with the finite element analysis (FEA), the reasonable control range of the prestressed control continuous beams was18%–30% of the estimated ultimate load. The research in this paper can provide references for the theoretical analysis and engineering application of similar structures.

The study of the long-term behavior of the prestressed continuous beam is vital for the design and the appliance of wood structures in engineering. In this study, long-term experiments were first conducted to determine the long-term creep behavior. Afterward, the prestress of the long-term beam was regulated to the initial state, and we carried out short-term flexural experiments to explore the effect of prestressing regulation. The influences of prestressed value and the number of prestressed steel wires on the mechanical properties of the continuous beam were investigated and discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the creep reduced the stress in the steel wires, weakened the effect of prestressing, and increased the tensile stress at the bottom of the beam, which led to a reduction in the bearing capacity of the beam. The prestressing regulation could increase the moment arm, so the bearing capacity of the beam was improved.