Fatigue life of structural plywood under two-stage panel shear load: a new cumulative fatigue damage theory

The fatigue life of structural plywood under two-stage panel shear load was experimentally examined. Two experimental conditions were determined for two-stage fatigue of plywood specimen: one used variable applied stress and the other used variable stress, loading waveform, and loading frequency, because fatigue life of wood composite under constant load depended on loading waveform and loading frequency as well as stress level. The most famous cumulative fatigue damage theory is the Palmgren-Miner rule, which is the summation of the ratio of the applied loading cycle to the fatigue life under each loading stage. However, the applicability of this rule to the two-stage fatigue of wood composites has not been investigated. It was first demonstrated in this study that the fatigue life of the plywood specimen reached in the two-stage fatigue test did not obey the Palmgren-Miner rule. Here, we propose the new cumulative fatigue damage model by modification of the Palmgren-Miner rule on the basis of the assumption that fatigue damage accumulates with loading cycle on a logarithmic scale. The newly proposed model was in good agreement with the fatigue life reached in the two-stage fatigue test.     

Fatigue of structural plywood under cyclic shear through thickness III: energy dissipation performance

Wood and wood composites have viscoelasticity, and show a hysteresis loop in the stress-strain relationship during cyclic loading such that part of the mechanical work applied is dissipated in the materials. In this study, the energy dissipation performance of plywood specimens under cyclic shear through thickness was investigated. Fatigue testing was conducted under three loading conditions: a square waveform at a loading frequency of 0.5 Hz, a triangular waveform at 0.5 Hz, and a triangular waveform at 5.0 Hz. The stress level was determined to be 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 of the static strength in shear through thickness. The energy dissipation ratio was defined as the ratio of energy loss per cycle to the strain energy per cycle, and was evaluated throughout the fatigue test. It was found that the energy dissipation ratio of a plywood specimen was kept constant during most of the fatigue process for a given stress level and loading condition. The energy dissipation performance was significantly dependent on stress level and loading condition, and became higher according to the damage intensity of cyclic load even if the same strain energy was applied.     

Fatigue of structural plywood under cyclic shear through thickness I: fatigue process and failure criterion based on strain energy

The fatigue behavior of plywood specimens under shear through thickness was examined on the basis of strain energy to obtain common empirical equations for the fatigue process and failure criterion under various loading conditions. Specimens were cut from commercial plywood panels of 9-mm thickness. Loading conditions were set as follows: a square waveform at a loading frequency of 0.5 Hz, a triangular waveform at 0.5 Hz, and a triangular waveform at 5.0 Hz. Peak stress applied was determined to be 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 of static strength, that is, stress levels of 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9. The stress-strain relationships were measured throughout the fatigue test, and the strain energy was obtained at each loading cycle. Loading conditions apparently affected the relationship between stress level and fatigue life. On the other hand, the relationship between mean strain energy per cycle and fatigue life was found to be independent of loading conditions. Mean strain energy per cycle obtained as the fatigue limit was 5.85 kJ/m³ per cycle. Assuming that the accumulation of strain energy is a fatigue indicator, the fatigue process and failure criterion for the plywood specimens under the three loading conditions were commonly expressed by the relationship between cumulative strain energy and loading cycles.     

Fatigue of structural plywood under cyclic shear through thickness II: a new method for fatigue life prediction

For plywood specimens under shear through the thickness, a fatigue life prediction method based on strain energy has been newly developed with the fatigue process and failure criterion applicable to various loading conditions. Once the fatigue process and failure criterion of the plywood specimen were determined by the fatigue data measured under a loading condition other than the square loading waveform, the fatigue life of a specimen under various loading conditions could be predicted easily and accurately by the first cycle loading test. The relationship between stress level and the predicted fatigue life was also similar to that between stress level and the experimentally determined fatigue life. The fatigue life prediction method proposed may be widely applicable to the prediction of the fatigue life of solid wood and wood composites.     

Reliability analysis and duration-of-load strength adjustment factor of the rolling shear strength of cross laminated timber

In this study, the duration-of-load effect on the rolling shear strength of cross laminated timber (CLT), with different cross-sectional layups (five-layer and three-layer), was evaluated. A stress-based damage accumulation model is chosen to evaluate the duration-of-load strength adjustment factor of the rolling shear strength of CLT. This model incorporates the established short-term rolling shear strength of material and predicts the time to failure under arbitrary loading history. The model has been calibrated and verified based on the test data from low cycle trapezoidal fatigue tests (damage accumulation tests) in the previous study. The long-term rolling shear behaviour of CLT can then be evaluated from this verified model. As the developed damage accumulation model is a probabilistic model, it can be incorporated into a time based reliability assessment of the CLT products, considering short-term, snow, and dead load only loading cases. The reliability analysis results and factors reflecting the duration-of-load effect on the rolling shear strength of CLT are compared and discussed. The characteristic of this modeling theory lies in that the verified model is also able to predict the duration-of-load behaviour of CLT products under arbitrary loading history, such as long-term dead load case; then, these predictions of time to failure from the damage accumulation model can elucidate duration of load by the stress ratio evaluation approach. The results suggest that the duration-of-load rolling shear strength adjustment factor for CLT is more severe than the general duration-of-load adjustment factor for lumber; this difference should be considered in the introduction of CLT into the building codes for engineered wood design.     

Compressive fatigue in wood

Summary  An investigation of fatigue failure in wood subjected to load cycles in compression parallel to grain is presented. Small clear specimens of spruce are taken to failure in square wave formed fatigue loading at a stress excitation level corresponding to 80% of the short term strength. Four frequencies ranging from 0.01 Hz to 10 Hz are used. The number of cycles to failure is found to be a poor measure of the fatigue performance of wood. Creep, maximum strain, stiffness and work are monitored throughout the fatigue tests. Accumulated creep is suggested identified with damage and a correlation is observed between stiffness reduction and accumulated creep. A failure model based on the total work during the fatigue life is rejected, and a modified work model based on elastic, viscous and non-recovered viscoelastic work is experimentally supported, and an explanation at a microstructural level is attempted. The outline of a model explaining the interaction of the effect of load duration and the effect of the loading sequences is presented. Received 8 December 1997     

An experimentally validated fatigue model for wood subjected to tension perpendicular to the grain

This study presents an experimental investigation of fatigue in wood subjected to tension perpendicular to the grain. The study has been designed with special reference to the influence of the frequency of loading. The investigation reveals an interaction between number of load oscillations and accumulated time under load to failure. This interaction corresponds to frequency dependent fatigue. Current models for damage accumulation and failure modelling are screened with respect to their ability to account for such “two-source” damage. The Damaged cracked viscoelastic material model proved to give a good basis.     

Shear behaviour of laminated Douglas fir veneer

The rolling shear and longitudinal shear behaviour of laminated Douglas fir veneers was studied using specimens with 15 layers of 2.5 mm veneers. The rolling shear specimens were constructed such that the 3 central veneers were cross-plies with grain angle oriented perpendicular to the long axis of the specimen. The other layers were orthogonal to the cross-plies. The longitudinal shear specimens had a LVL lay-up with the exception of a reinforcement layer of fiber-glass attached to the bottom face veneer. The fiber-glass layer prevented specimens from failing in bending/tension mode and ensured longitudinal shear failures. Specimens were subjected to static and cyclic loads in a “flatwise” three point bending configuration. It was found that the rolling shear failure mode exhibited a higher fatigue resistance than the longitudinal shear failure mode. A damage model that took the stress history into account was calibrated to the experimental data of each specimen type. Good agreement between model predictions and experimental results were obtained for both failure modes. Received 5 November 1997     

Fatigue and creep in chipboard

Summary Structural grade chipboard used as floor decking can be exposed to a combination of creep loading, and fatigue loading at a wide range of frequencies. Creep loads are produced by static masses such as machinery. Fatigue loads arise from intermittent loads such as fork lift trucks in motion, people in motion, or vibrating machinery.Four-point bend tests in fatigue and creep have been performed simultaneously on matched sets of four structural grade chipboard samples. The aim was to examine the effect of frequency on the fatigue performance of chipboard by following the rate of microstrain development in each case at the same peak stress. The ratio of the minimum to the maximum fatigue stress (the R ratio) was set at R = 0.1. Fatigue tests were performed at three different frequencies classified as low, medium and high, determined by the rate of application of stress.The performance of chipboard in flooring applications is shown to be highly dependent on the loading frequency. Increasing the frequency increased the number of cycles to failure as did reducing the stress level. Using hysteresis loop capture to monitor damage accumulation during testing indicates that there is a fatigue limit for chipboard loaded at constant amplitude at some point just below 20% of its static bending strength.This research was supported by the Building Research Establishment who also supported the postgraduate case award in conjunction with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)     

Dynamic responsive characteristics of nailed plywood–timber joints under harmonic vibrations

Dynamic tests of nailed plywood–timber joints are conducted under harmonic vibrations from 2 to 7 Hz. The principal results are as follows: under dynamic loading, nailed plywood–timber joints may break in low-cyclic bending fatigue failure of nails besides the other failure modes typical under static loading. The dynamic response of nailed plywood–timber joints is clearly dependent upon both the input frequency and the acceleration. These responsive characteristics arise from the nonlinear load–slip relationships and the characteristic cyclic stiffness degradation of nailed joints; that is, the cyclic degradation of the equivalent linear stiffness decreases the resonant frequencies of the same joints, which results in a transition of dynamic responses. It indicates that frequency components of seismic waves resonant to the frequencies corresponding to safety-limit stiffness of nailed joints may lead them to critical failures, even if the accelerations do not exceed the accelerations equivalent to the static damage-limit resistance.     

Shear strengths of wood measured by various short beam shear test methods

We conducted three types of short beam shear tests of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla Sarg.) under various span/depth ratios, and examined whether the maximum shear stress was used as the shear strength. The following results were obtained. (1) In the short beam shear tests under the three-point loading method, it was difficult to have the specimen failing by horizontal shear. We thought that this method should not be recommended for determining the shear strength of wood. (2) In the short beam shear tests under the asymmetric four-point loading of the specimen with a rectangular cross-section, the failure caused by horizontal shear occurred under some span/depth ratio range. Nevertheless, this range was dependent on the specimen geometry and was quite restricted. We therefore think that this method should not be recommended for determining the shear strength of wood. (3) In the short beam shear tests under the asymmetric four-point loading of the I-shaped specimen, failure caused by horizontal shear occurred under the span/depth ratio range wider than that applicable for the asymmetric four-point loading of the specimen with a rectangular cross-section. The maximum shear stress was stable in a certain span/depth ratio range and the value of the maximum shear stress is effective as a parameter for comparing the shearing strength of materials with each other.     

Failure analysis of a liquid natural gas (LNG) containment system – Bending failure of plywood component

Abstract

The main load-carrying component of the containment system of membrane gas carriers is made of plywood. One of the failure modes of the containment system due to violent liquid loading inside the tank is bending the plywood plate. A systematic study of the plywood bending failure is conducted by means of experiments and finite element (FE) methods. The objective is to propose an FE model that can replicate the nonlinear tests results of the plywood bending failure. The FE software ABAQUS has been utilized as a basis for this study. The material is modelled by linear elasticity combined with damage initiation using Hashin's theory. The brittle behaviour is indicated by linear softening. The softening is modelled by a fracture energy approach. The sensitivity study of the damage parameter on ultimate bending load is conducted. The numerical results from FE models are compared with the test results. A nonlinear material and FE model of plywood that could demonstrate the brittle failure is proposed.     

Estimation of failure lifetime in plywood-to-timber joints with nails and screws under cyclic loading

The performance of plywood-sheathed shear walls is determined at the plywood-to-timber joints. In joints with dowel-type fasteners, such as nails and screws, the fastener is fractured under reversed cyclic loading (e.g., seismic force), reducing the ductility of the joint. The fracture is caused by low-cycle fatigue due to the reversed cyclic bending of the fastener. Therefore, evaluating the fatigue life is important for estimating the ultimate displacement. The main objective of this study is to estimate the ultimate displacement of the joints and to enable load–displacement calculation of single shear joints under reversed cyclic displacement when bending fatigue failure of the fastener occurs. Single shear tests were conducted under different loading protocols, and the damage performances of the fasteners were determined by subjecting them to reversed cyclic bending tests. Based on the results, the failure lifetimes of joints with dowel-type fasteners were estimated. In addition, the fracture mechanism of these dowel-type fasteners was elucidated. CN50-type nails and wood screws with dimensions of 4.1?×?38 and 4.5?×?50 mm were used as fasteners. The single shear tests showed that the smaller the displacements per cycle, the lower are the ultimate displacement and ductilities of the joints. Moreover, load–displacement relationship up to fastener failure can be approximately estimated by combining the yield model and failure lifetime.     

Effect of load type on failure mechanisms of spruce in compression parallel to grain

Failure mechanisms of small clear specimens (6×6×24 mm) of air-dried black spruce (Picea mariana) under parallel-to-grain compression were investigated by polarised-light microscopy. Fatigue load was used with a peak stress level of 90% static strength, a load frequency of 0.5 Hz, and a square waveform with a duty ratio of 0.50. Matched pure creep and static load tests were carried out. Damage was quantified in terms of the permanent microstructural changes (kinks) in tracheid walls. In static load tests, kinks develop quickly with any increase in stress beyond the limit of proportionality. In creep tests, damage develops mainly from kinks formed during the initial load application. In fatigue tests, damage develops both from kinks formed during the initial load cycle, and kinks formed during subsequent cycles. The number of kinks exhibits a strong relationship with relative cyclic creep or relative creep.     

Evaluation of a modified Iosipescu shear test method for determining the shear properties of clear wood

A modified Iosipescu shear test method is proposed as an alternative for measuring the shear properties of clear wood. The method adopts four-point asymmetric loading procedure in the Iosipescu shear test but with the loading positions shifted to the neutral axis of the specimen. The original V-notched specimen is replaced by a combination of polyvinyl chloride blocks at two ends and a bow-tie-shaped wood specimen in the middle to provide a better stress pattern at failure. The measured shear strength and shear moduli are compared with results from compression test and off-axis tension test. Finite element analysis is also carried out to study the stress distribution in the wood specimen. Results show that the new shear test setup can provide close-to pure shear stress state in the specimen yielding better estimates of the shear properties of wood. The shear strength obtained by the new test setup is slightly lower than that from the off-axis tensile test which is probably due to the relatively thick specimen chosen in this study.     

Acoustic emission analysis of industrial plywood materials exposed to destructive tensile load

Several plywood materials made from spruce wood and, for comparison, solid spruce wood were investigated focusing on the sub-macroscopic damage evolution during tensile loading of the specimens. The destructive tests were simultaneously monitored by the acoustic emission (AE) method and strain field deformation measurement using digital image correlation (DIC). The bilinear interpretation of exponential defect growth identified the start of significant nonlinear behavior at 70 % of ultimate strength for all plywood materials. However, already the preceding and more stable damage evolution at lower stress levels has indicated a variation in intensity of the source mechanisms evaluated by AE energy of the detected events. Additional information on the formation of strain field concentration, which correlates with discrete accumulation in AE events and increased spreading in the distribution of AE energy, reveals the complexity of pre-damage due to the variation in cracks’ magnitude and timescales involved. The correlation between ultimate tensile strength and damage accumulation below 70 % of ultimate strength is determined, as well as the influence of layered structures on damage size shown by the percentage distribution of AE energy.     

Fatigue and creep of chipboard

Structural grade chipboard was subjected to fatigue and creep loads in four-point bending, the peak fatigue stress being equal to the constant creep stress. Peak fatigue stresses of 50, 60, 70 and 80% of the static bend strength were selected and an S-N (stress versus log₁₀ (cycles)) curve was generated. Stress versus strain hysteresis loops were captured automatically throughout fatigue tests so that underlying creep strain, dynamic modulus and energy dissipated per cycle were continuously monitored. The possibility of superimposing creep and fatigue data was investigated.The S-N curve generated at R = 0.01 demonstrates that for lives of less than 10⁷ cycles chipboard does not show a fatigue endurance limit. The 70 and 80% samples experience a gradual decrease in dynamic modulus and an increase in the area of the hysteresis loop during fatigue tests. Samples at the 50 and 60% levels show an initial increase in dynamic modulus before a decline to failure is observed.Creep samples never failed before fatigue samples at the same peak stress level, but until close to the point of failure, creep strains were nearly always greater than fatigue strains on elapsed time. It is concluded that the mechanism of fatigue damage accumulation differs from the mechanism of creep deformation.     

Monitoring critical defects of creep rupture in oriented strandboard using acoustic emission: incorporation of EN300 standard

This creep rupture study in commercial oriented strandboard (OSB) used a 4-point flexural test to evaluate the dynamic property changes of a 300×1,000-mm specimen using an acoustic emission (AE) system. Compared to deflection, AE events were more sensitive to damage accumulation than deflection to final failure. Specimens were artificially notched on either the tension- or compression-side and were subjected to 80% stress level at ambient conditions. Defects on the compression side of the bending specimen were found to be more critical than on the tension side in creep-rupture. The in-plane fractures followed patterns of the valleys of low-density spots as defect trenches, demonstrating adverse effects of high variation in horizontal density. An impetus and rationale to incorporate regulatory quality inspection standards and product certification of structural OSB based on the control limits of ±10% panel density as stipulated in EN300 standard is discussed.Experiment conducted at the former University of California Forest Products Laboratory (Nondestructive Evaluation Center), Richmond, CA 94804, USA.     

Effect of element type on the internal bond quality of wood-based panels determined by three methods

Three mechanical tests with different loading modes were conducted to evaluate the effect of element type on the internal bond quality of wood-based panels. In addition to the internal bond test, which is commonly used for mat-formed panels, interlaminar and edgewise shear tests were used to test oriented strandboard (OSB), particleboard, medium-density fiberboard (MDF) of two thicknesses, and plywood. The following results were obtained. Epoxy resin proved to be suitable for determining the interlaminar shear modulus instead of hot-melt glue. There was a linear relation between panel density and interlaminar shear modulus and a linear correlation between the interlaminar shear strength and internal bond (IB) strength for the mat-formed panels tested. OSB had the highest edgewise shear modulus, and MDFs had the highest edgewise shear strength in this study. The modulus/strength ratio also depended on both panel type and loading mode. The relation between the shear moduli determined from the edgewise and interlaminar tests indicated the characteristics of the shear properties of panels made of different elements.Part of this paper was presented at the Fourth International Wood Science Symposium, Serpong, Indonesia, September 2002     

轻型木结构用落叶松胶合板覆板均布载荷性能试验研究

介绍了轻型木结构覆板均布静载结构性能试验的装置、条件和方法，并进行了国产落叶松胶合板制作轻型木结构覆板的均布静载性能研究。结果表明：与国外胶合板覆板具有相同厚度的国产落叶松屋面板和楼面板，其均布载荷性能均优于标准规定的技术指标值。