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.