ISSN: 1945-7553
CODEN: JTEVAB
Page Count: 7

Modeling Wood in Transverse Compression

Pellicane, PJ
Professor of Wood Engineering, Colorado State University, Ft. CollinsCO,

Bodig, J
President, Engineering Data Management, Inc., Ft. Collins, CO

Mrema, AL
Assistant professor, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salasm,

(Received 14 June 1993; accepted 20 December 1993)

Abstract

A plane-stress, Finite element model has been developed to predict the stress distribution in wood members subject to perpendicular-to-grain compression. This model exploits linearstrain, isoparametric triangular elements used in sufficient number to achieve a convergent solution. Model verification was achieved through comparison of numerically obtained deformation predictions with corresponding experimental data obtained from actual test specimens. Twenty-seven specimens were instrumented to determine their deformations at numerous locations. Test materials were sampled from three logs (two eagelemann spruce, one western hemlock). Specimens were fabricated with three widely different orthotropic ratios, three geometries (length/depth ratios), and three loading geometries (uniformly distributed load across the estire length, one-half length, and one-quarter length). In total, 377 experimental measurements on 27 specimens were compared to finite element predictions. The results showed that on average the model predicted local deformation to within 5%.

Keywords:
compression parpendicular-to-grain, finite element method, wood, experimental verification

Paper ID: JTE11848J
DOI: 10.1520/JTE11848J
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