Transverse anisotropy in softwoods : Modelling and experiments

Abstract: Transverse anisotropy is an important phenomenon of practical and scientific interest. Although the presence of ray tissue explains the high radial modulus in many hardwoods, experimental data in the literature shows that this is not the case for pine. It is possible that anisotropy in softwoods may be explained by the cellular structure and associated deformation mechanisms. An experimental approach was developed by which local radial modulus in spruce was determined at sub-annual ring scale. Digital speckle photography (DSP) was used, and the density distribution was carefully characterized using x-ray densitometry and the SilviScan apparatus. A unique set of data was generated for radial modulus versus a wide range of densities. This was possible since earlywood density shows large density variations in spruce. Qualitative comparison was made between data and predictions from stretching and bending honeycomb models. The hypothesis for presence of cell wall stretching was supported by data. A model for wood was therefore developed where both cell wall bending and stretching are included. The purpose was a model for predictions of softwood moduli over a wide range of densities. The relative importance of the deformation mechanisms was investigated in a parametric study. A two-phase model was developed and radial and tangential moduli were predicted. Comparison with experimental data showed good agreement considering the nature of the model (density is the only input parameter). Agreement is much better than for a regular honeycomb model. According to the model, cell wall bending dominates at both low and high densities during tangential loading. In radial loading, cell wall stretching dominates at higher densities.