Strength properties of laminated veneer lumber in compression perpendicular to its grain

Abstract

Tests of compression perpendicular to the grain were carried out on laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and timber. The species tested were sugi, radiata pine, karamatsu, akamatsu, and dahurian larch; two sets of sugi specimens were tested, with the sugi LVL products being manufactured in different plants. The strength properties of the materials for different loading directions were compared for LVL and timber. At 5% compressive strain in the same materials, the average stress in the tangential direction of timber was larger than that in the radial direction for all species except for radiata pine, and the average stress in the edge-wise direction of LVL was larger than that in the flat-wise direction for all species except for radiata pine. When the stress at 5% strain was compared in the same direction, the average stress of LVL in the edge-wise direction was larger than that in timber in the tangential direction for all species, but there were no great differences between the average stress of LVL in the fl at-wise direction and that of timber in the radial direction for all species except for radiation pine. There was a close relationship between density and stress at 5% strain in LVL, especially in the edge-wise direction. For all results, radiata pine did not follow the trend of the other species; The large annual ring width of radiata pine was considered to have affected the results.