Fatigue behaviour and size effect perpendicular to the grain of laminated Douglas fir veneer

Abstract

The rolling or planar shear behaviour of laminated Douglas fir veneers was studied by testing specimens with 15 layers of 2.5 mm thick veneers under “flatwise” three point bending. Based on two specimen sizes, width effect of laminated veneer was experimentally and theoretically evaluated. The fatigue performance of the specimens was also studied through cyclic testing of three series of specimens at mean stress levels of 95%, 91%, and 83% of the mean static strenthh. A damage model which took the stress history into consideration was calibrated to the experimental data. Good agreement between model predictions and experimental results was obtained. Using a size adjustment factor, the model was verified by a cyclically tested series of specimens of different size.