Analysis of Shear Strength of Wood

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis of different types of shear strength of wood which can differ very much due to its structure and different orientations of applied load. These combinations of wood structure and load orientations lead to different modes of fracture. The main aim of the paper is to find a relation among all types of shear strength of the wood and to reduce the number of shear tests. Furthermore, different shear strengths will be analyzed both experimentally and numerically, i.e. experimentally by testing appropriate specimens and numerically with the help of the finite element structural analysis solver Robot AutoDesk. The testing specimens will be loaded parallel and perpendicular to the wood fibres and the radial and tangential planes will be analyzed. The paper will also investigate the relation to other strengths of wood (i.e. tensile strength parallel and perpendicular to the fibres) in order to simplify the testing procedure for shear strength determination.