Project Description
Project Overview: Wood is a hierarchical material with numerous structural features including growth rings at the millimeter length scale and cells at 10 micron length scale (1/1,000,000 meters). Classical elasticity theory (ex. Metals) is not sufficient to describe the elastic properties of wood when the size of the tested specimens approaches the size of a structural feature. Recent results at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) have shown a size effect caused by growth rings in pure bending when the cross-section of a bending specimen was reduced from about 30 mm to 5 mm. Similar effects are expected when testing mechanical properties of slivers of wood (50-100μm) that have different numbers of cells in their cross-section. This project will explore the size effects in wood mechanics either at the growth ring or wood sliver level. Design of experiments will be performed to determine the shear modulus and damping of the wood slinters with respect to humidity. The team will utilize testing equipment at FPL and conducted analysis with FPL researchers and experts.
Client: Dr. Joseph Jakes, Forest Products Laboratories
Student Team: Rachel Acevedo, Logan Turner, Sabrina Vandenheuvel, Tanner Wallenkamp
