Impact Behavior of Biaxially Compressed Wood

Abstract

The wood bar with square cross-section was biaxially compressed with respect to the cross-sectional plane and the impact 4-point bending test was performed using the compressed wood. The wood material used was sap wood of Sugi, which is a kind of Japanese cedar. The biaxial compression apparatus which enabled to prevent the gap generation between the material and the tool was used. The fixation of wood specimen was also processed. The bar length was 100 mm and the edge length in cross-section was 15 ~ 25 mm. In the 4-point bending test, the distance between the supports and the stress points were 80 mm and 40 mm. The stress points were impacted by a light-weight drop-hammer with 3.0 kg mass. The impact velocity was 2 m/s. The surface strain was measured by a strain gage. When the Young’s modulus was estimated by assuming a linear elastic property, it attained about 32 GPa, which was more than 4 times of the uncompressed wood. The stress – strain hysteresis loop was more remarkable under the impact condition. It was found that the compressed wood provided not only a high rigidity, but also a good property in dissipation of vibration energy.