Estimation of toughness as a function of compression strength parallel to the grain of tropical woods

Abstract

Tropical species are widely used in construction, and their physical and mechanical properties have been important characteristics with direct impact on the design of structures, especially the strength and stiffness of wood applied in them. Tests to obtain both parameters are conducted under ABNT NBR 7190 (1997) guidelines in Brazil, being rarely found in some research centers because of the higher costs of testing equipment. For instance, the toughness test depends on equipment with a pendulum, whose device requires accuracy and maintenance for reliable analyses. This paper aims to estimate toughness through another property more easily found, given by the compression strength parallel to the grain. For this, 20 tropical wood species of the South American region were used to obtain initial values of these properties. The characteristic values of the compression strength parallel to the grain as well as linear and quadratic regression models were obtained. Statistical analysis was performed and confirmed that a linear model gave better predictions than a quadratic model.