Abstract
When wood is used as a structural material, the fact that it is a highly inhomogeneous material, which significantly affects its static and fatigue properties, presents a major challenge to engineers. In this paper, a novel approach to modelling the fatigue-life properties of wood is presented. In the model, the common inverse-power-law relationship between the structural amplitude loads and the corresponding number of load cycles to failure is augmented with the influence of the wood’s mass density, the loading direction and the processing lot. The model is based on the two-parametric conditional Weibull’s probability density function with a constant shape parameter and a scale parameter that is a function of the previously mentioned parameters. The proposed approach was validated using the example of experimental static and fatigue-strength data from spruce beams. It turned out that the newly presented model is capable of adequately replicating the spruce’s S-N curves with a scatter, despite the relatively scarce amount of experimental data, which came from different production lots that were loaded in different directions and had a significant variation in density. Based on the experimental data, the statistical model predicts that the lower density wood has better fatigue strength.
Highlights
In recent years, wood has become an increasingly interesting alternative to steel and concrete due to greater environmental awareness and the general trend towards sustainable construction materials
Based on the experimental data, the statistical model predicts that the lower density wood has better fatigue strength
Products made from biological materials such as wood often exhibit complex mechanical behaviour
Summary
Wood has become an increasingly interesting alternative to steel and concrete due to greater environmental awareness and the general trend towards sustainable construction materials. Products made from biological materials such as wood often exhibit complex mechanical behaviour Such materials have been used for thousands of years, their mechanical behaviour is not yet fully understood. Their properties often vary from sample to sample and exhibit non-linear mechanical behaviour when subjected to large loads. The wooden structural elements are subjected to quasi-static loading with a small change in the load over time. In such applications it is the static strength of the wood that determines the load-carrying capacity of the structure. Much research has been conducted to explain the fatigue phenomena with respect to wood [8,10,11,13,14,15,16]
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