Determination of transverse elastic constants of wood using a cylindrically orthotropic model

Abstract

The arrangement of anatomical elements in the cross section of a tree can be characterized, at least to a first approximation, with a cylindrical coordinate system. It seems reasonable that the physical properties of wood in the transverse plane, therefore, would exhibit behaviour that is associated with this anatomical alignment. Most of the transverse properties of wood reported in the literature were determined using test specimens with rectilinear geometry. We are interested in using test specimens that are geometrically compatible with the material organization of the tree to avoid the boundary condition problems that arise from testing materials with curvilinear orthotropy. TO this end. we are developing a test procedure to obtain values for the transverse elastic constants from hollow disks of wood subjected to various loading regimes. In this paper we show, for a given set of displacements and forces in two classes of problems: 1) hollow disk subjected to equally spaced radial loads and 2) hallow disk subjected to equally spaced tangential loads, that previously developed theoretical solutions match finite element analysis. We then discuss how the theoretical solutions can be used in an inverse method to determine the transverse elastic constants.

Citation

Hermanson, John C. 2003. Determination of transverse elastic constants of wood using a cylindrically orthotropic model. Proceedings of the Second International Conference of the European Society for Wood Mechanics : May 25th-28th, 2003, Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden : STFI-Packforst AB, 2003: pages 207-211