The benefits of longitudinally post-tensioning in timber beams has been highlighted in several laboratory tests carried out at the University of Canterbury. However, there is still some concern about the long-term behaviour of post-tensioned engineered wood, which relates in particular to the amount of possible post-tensioning loss due to creep effects inside compressed members. For this reason, research has been conducted at the University of Canterbury including both experimental and numerical work on post-tensioned members. In the first part of this paper, the experimental results relative to four years of monitoring of post-tensioned LVL beam specimens with different tendon profiles are presented. In the second part, a coupled finite difference-finite element procedure is proposed to numerically simulate the beams behaviour. Results are then critically discussed, in particular concerning the amount of post-tensioning losses as well as creep deformations on the beams deflection.
