Mechanical behaviour of wood compressed in radial direction-part I.New method of determining the yield stress of wood on the stress-strain curve

A test equipment was developed,which allows for real time observation of the deformation behav-ior of wood cellular structure under a compression load applied in radial direction.Compression tests were performed on jack pine(Pinus banksiana)and balsam poplar(Populus balsamifera)spec-imens to explore the relationship between the yield stress and the first failure occurring in wood cell layers during radial compression.The microstructural changes for P.banksiana and P.bal-samifera wood below and above the yield point were analyzed.The study results showed that for P.banksiana the first failure of wood cells occurred at the first earlywood layer,while for P.balsamifera it occurred at the layer with the largest vessels.The first failure of wood cell layer for each species tested was found to correspond to the yield point on the stress-strain curve.A new method of determining the yield stress for wood specimens under radial compression was developed.

Mechanical behaviour of wood compressed in radial direction:Part II.Influence of temperature and moisture content

This study investigated the influence of pressing temperature and moisture content on the me-chanical properties of wood compressed in radial direction.Jack pine(Pinus banksiana)and bal-sam poplar(Populus balsamifera)specimens were tested under a combination of pressing temper-ature(20℃,55℃,90℃,and 125℃)and wood moisture content(2%,7%,12%,and 17%).The yield stress(_(δ)y)and modulus of elasticity(MOE)of the specimens were determined from the stress-strain response.It was found that an increase in either pressing temperature or moisture content of wood generally caused a decrease in the mechanical properties for both species.The t-test results revealed that jack pine specimens are more sensitive to changes in pressing tem-perature and wood moisture content than balsam poplar.For jack pine specimens,at any of the pressing temperatures,the moisture content of 12%was found to be a crucial level to start a significant decrease in𝜎y and MOE,while at any of the moisture content,a change in temper-ature from 55℃to 90℃exhibited a significant change in𝜎y and MOE.The regression models developed can be used to predict𝜎y and MOE as a function of temperature and moisture content.