Abstract
Assessing wood fracture behavior is essential in the design of structural timber elements and connections. This is particularly the case for connections with the possibility of brittle splitting failure. The numerical cohesive zone models that are used to simulate the fracture behavior of wood make it necessary to assume a cohesive law of the material that relates cohesive tractions and crack opening displacements ahead of the crack tip. This work addresses the determination of the fracture cohesive laws of Eucalyptus globulus, a hardwood species with great potential in timber engineering. This study centres on Mode I fracture loading for RL and TL crack propagation systems using Double Cantilever Beam tests. The Compliance-Based Beam Method is applied as the data reduction scheme in order to obtain the strain energy release rate from the load-displacement curves. The cohesive laws are determined by differentiating the relationship between strain energy release rate and crack tip opening displacement. The latter is measured by the digital image correlation technique. High strain energy release rates were obtained for this species, with no big differences between crack propagation systems. The difference between the crack systems is somewhat more pronounced in terms of maximum stress that determines the respective cohesive laws.
Highlights
Hardwood species are increasingly used for structural purposes, and this is shown, for instance, by in the development of new products with great impact in the European market
The cohesive laws in mode I of Eucalyptus globulus for RL and TL crack propagation systems were determined by means of Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) fracture tests
The GI was correlated with the crack tip opening displacements measured by digital image correlation technique to obtain the cohesive laws
Summary
Hardwood species are increasingly used for structural purposes, and this is shown, for instance, by in the development of new products with great impact in the European market. Eucalyptus globulus Labill is seen as a hardwood species with major potential in timber engineering, because of its high mechanical performance and durability, its aesthetic qualities, and the large stock of eucalyptus resources. This situation requires continuous research in different fields, where improvement of the drying process and the development of laminated products are two of the main ongoing research focuses [1,2,3,4]. Connections are most some of the most critical parts, as they may lead to a dangerous situation in cases of brittle splitting failure produced by tension perpendicular to the grain.
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