European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-020-01605-x

ORIGINAL

Properties relationship evaluation and plasticity analytical model

approach for Brazilian tropical species
Leonardo Araújo Marcolin1   · Fabiana Yukiko Moritani1   · Priscila Mirapalhete Rodegheri1   ·
Francisco Antonio Rocco Lahr1 

Received: 18 March 2019 / Accepted: 19 September 2020

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
In anisotropic materials such as wood, different responses to bending induced stresses could be expected. This study evalu-
ated the behavior of properties of modulus of rupture (MOR) in bending, the tension strength parallel to grain and the
compression strength parallel to grain of Brazilian tropical hardwood species in accordance with Brazilian, European and
International Standards, and an analytical equation considering plasticity in the compressed region. Experimental data were
obtained using clear wood specimens and tests on ten species. An analysis of the mechanical behavior was conduced for three
strength relationships: bending to compression, bending to tension and tension to compression. Linear regression models
were determined using the 5th percentile and compared to the ones found by the standards cited. The experimental results
were also evaluated to an analytical equation modified from the moment equilibrium of a cross-section. Of the equations
evaluated in this study, the ones suggested by the European and International standards for tension strength from bending
strength were the ones which best estimated the 5th percentile on experimental data. Other relationships did not show a good
agreement with the equations. The analytical equation used had a mean model error 37.4% higher than the experimental
values for the prediction of the ratio of tension to bending strength.

1 Introduction 1.1 Behavior of timber properties

Timber is an anisotropic material that is considered as ortho-
tropic for simplification in structural design. This means that
three axes possess different characteristics (longitudinal,
tangential and radial). It is well-known by researchers that
different results are obtained when a load is applied to the
same axis but in a different direction (i.e., pulling instead of
pushing), which will put the piece in tension instead of com-
pression. The stresses vary in behavior and value. Tension
tends to have a linear elastic behavior until brittle rupture,
and compression behavior is mostly linear until a propor-
tional limit, when it becomes elastoplastic until rupture. As
quasi-static bending is a combination of mainly tension and
compression on long beams (length/height greater than 21),
among other stresses, it is of particular importance in struc-
tural engineering to understand how this material reacts.
* Leonardo Araújo Marcolin
eng.marcolin@gmail.com
1
Structural Engineering Department, Escola de Engenharia
de São Carlos (USP‑EESC), Universidade de Sâo Paulo,
Trabalhador Sãocarlense Av. 400 São Carlos, SP, Brazil
In general, standards have approximate formulae for estimating
mechanical properties. The Brazilian code (NBR 7190 1997)
is no different, although two of them are contradictory in terms
of the values of bending, tension and compression. The first
relationship, Eq. 1, shows that there is a significant difference
between the characteristic compression and tension characteristic
strength of timber, the latter being higher. The second relation-
ship, Eq. 2, states that the characteristic bending strength has
the same value as the characteristic tension parallel to the grain.
fc0,k
= 0.77 (1)
ft0,k
fm,k = ft0,k (2)
The method for the estimation of the bending strength
according to this same code considers that timber com-
pression and tension strength parallel to the grain have the
same value, allowing the simplification shown in Eq. 3. No
account is taken of the non-linear behavior of timber in com-
pression in the estimation of the bending strength.

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 European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

M M.x compression stress on the cross-section, and x is the plasti-

fc0 = ft0 → fm = = (3)
W I cized height of the beam in the compressed region. This for-
mula incorporates the plasticity behavior of the compressed
The International standard (ISO 16598 2013) and Euro-
region as an area that has already reached a“yield” strength
pean standard (EN 384 2016) have different approximate
value. After some manipulations of the equation to better
formulas for these properties. Table 1 shows the relation-
suit the aim of the study, a formulation to estimate the ratio
ships of these two codes. Several studies show that values
of the compression to tension strength parallel to the grain
for the relationship between mechanical properties are influ-
was determined (Eq. 5). Similarly, for the ratios of tension
enced by the grade and size of the timber test specimens
to bending strength and compression to bending strength,
(Galligan et al. 1979; Burger and Glos 1997; Steiger and
Eqs. 6 and 7 were obtained.
Arnold 2009). Burger and Glos (1997) indicated that the
ratio between the tension strength parallel to the grain and 𝜎c |
| 12M |
|
the bending modulus of rupture increases as the grade of = rct (M, 𝜎t , x) = |
| b𝜎t (h2 + hx − 2x2 )
+ 1 |
| (5)
𝜎t
timber tested improves. Steiger and Arnold (2009) reviewed | |
the European code EN 338 (2003) formulations. They used
𝜎t
a large sample of Norway spruce structural timber and dif- = rtm (M, 𝜎c , x)
ferent cross-section dimensions. The results showed that fm
the ratio of the tension strength parallel to the grain to the |( 𝜎 ) 2| (6)
| 12 bh |
=| c − |
bending modulus of rupture was not a constant value. For | M b(h2 + hx − 2x2 ) 6 |
| |
timber, which had a bending property value higher than 22
N/mm2 , the ratio range was of 0.6–0.75, while for bending 𝜎c
strengths lower than 22 N/mm2 the ratio was below 0.6. The = rcm (M, 𝜎t , x)
fm
ratio of compression strength parallel to the grain to bend- (7)
|( 𝜎 ) 2|
ing modulus of rupture given by EN 384 (2016) had a lower |
=| t +
12 bh |
|
estimate than the results obtained by the authors, as it would | M b(h2 + hx − 2x2 ) 6 |
| |
be expected for a safe estimate. A solution they proposed
was to use the density of the specimens additionally to the The difference in the behavior of tension and compres-
two properties to calculate a linear model to estimate the sion parallel to the grain of timber causes some concerns
compression strength. on the simplification and estimation of properties related
to bending strength contained in the standards. This study
1.2 Analytical model for timber in bending aims to analyze the structural behavior of timber compres-
sion, tension and bending strength values by experimental
Van der Put (2010) at the time of the publication questioned the data for ten Brazilian tropical timber species and analytical
formulae suggested by the European standard. He pointed out models to estimate strength properties ratios (compression/
the need for equations that would show brittle-like behavior in tension, tension/bending and compression/bending strength)
tension and unlimited plastic flow in compression. The author in bending.
manipulated the equation derived from the moment equilibrium
of a cross-section of a beam in bending shown in Eq. 4.
(𝜎 − 𝜎 ) ( ) 2 Materials and methods
M c t h h−x
= (h − x) − (4)
b 2 2 3
This study consists of three fundamental parts: experimental
where M is the bending moment, b is the width and h is estimation of the properties of the timber, relationship and
the height of the beam, 𝜎t is the tension stress and 𝜎c is the behavior analyses of the data and validation of the proposed
analytical model. All images were generated using MAT-
LAB software.
Table 1  Properties relationship

ISO 16598 ft0,k = 0.5fm,k fc0,k = fm,k (1.7 − 4.6.10−2 fm,k 2.1 Experimental data sampling
(2013) +4.6.10−4 fm,k
2
) (a)
fc0,k ≤ 0.59fm,k (b) The sample used in this study was comprised of ten spe-
EN 384 ft0,k = 0.6fm,k 0.5
fc0,k = 4.3fm,k cies of tropical timber from Brazil: Mezilaurus itauba
(2016) (Itaúba), Erisma sp. (Cambará Rosa), Vataireopsis ara-
NBR 7190 ft0,k = fm,k fc0,k = 0.77.ft0,k roba (Angelim Araroba), Clarisia racemosa (Oiticica),
(1997)
Ocotea sp. (Canelão), Tabebuia sp. (Ipê), Goupia glabra

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European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

Aubl. (Cupiúba), Hymenaea sp. (Jatobá), Manilkara
sp.(Maçaranduba) and Dinizia excelsa Ducke (Angelim
Ferro). The properties of interest were the compression and
tension strength parallel to the grain and bending strength
( fm ). Each property was estimated according to the Brazil-
ian standard for timber structures design NBR 7190 (1997).
The following numbers of clear wood specimens were used:
12 for the first 5 species, 34, 36, 35, 24 and 23, respectively
for the other species, making 212 specimens for each prop-
erty in total. Specimens were cut (cross-section of 50 mm ×
50 mm) from each plank of timber in matched sets of 3, i.e.
one specimen for each of the properties, so that the different
characteristics could be compared in the analysis.
2.2 Properties relationship and behavior
As noted above, the Brazilian standard for the design of
timber structures uses relationships that contradict them-
selves, which dictate the relation of compression and ten-
sion strength parallel to the grain, and bending strength.
To verify the relationship, the 5th percentiles were cal-
culated from the experimental data and compared with
the characteristic values from the standards. Firstly, the
5th percentile values were calculated for five samples
formed from all species together, ensuring a minimum of
40 specimens per sample. The suggested reduction of 0.5
for the estimation of the percentile was adopted from ISO
16598 (2013). The characteristic values were calculated
by the 5th percentile of the samples. The characteristic
strength values were calculated using Eq. 8, as suggested
in NBR 7190 (1997), where x1 is the lowest value of the
sample, xn is the highest value of the sample, n is the num-
ber of specimens in the sample and fk is the characteristic
strength value.
[( ) ]
x1 + x2 + ⋯ + xn∕2−1
fi,k,NBR = 2 n − xn∕2 1.1 (8)
−1
2 exception was the lowest value of the tension strength, which
The strength properties parallel to the grain, related to bend-
ing strength, were evaluated with estimate formulations sug-
gested by three normative codes: ISO 16598 (2013), EN
338 (2012) and NBR 7190 (1997). A graphical analysis was
conducted to verify the Brazilian timber species behavior
compared to relationships suggested by the literature. The
second evaluation determined the cumulative distribution of
the three properties experimentally estimated and calculated
the ratios of each property, following the equations used
in codes with a regression analysis and a comparison with
the references cited. These were plotted to provide a better
understanding of the data.
2.3 Validation of the analytical model
The model chosen was derived by the equation of moment
equilibrium of a cross-section in Van der Put (2010). As
the equation estimates the values of the maximum bending
moment, three experimental properties were used: tension
and compression strength parallel to the grain and maximum
bending moment at failure. These values were first analyzed
graphically, on the basis of coordinates ( ft0 , Mmax , fc0/ ft0 ),
along with the values estimated by the analytical formula-
tion, as explained in the results and discussion.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Experimental data sampling
Table 2 shows the range of values obtained from the experi-
mental tests for each property and species, giving the mean,
minimum and maximum value. For the three properties used
in this study, the species that showed the lowest values for
most properties was Erisma sp. and the one that showed the
highest values for all properties was Hymenaea sp.. The only

Table 2  Properties Species fc0 (N/mm 2 ) ft0 (N/mm 2 ) fm (N/mm 2 )

experimentally determined by
species Min. Mean Max. SD Min. Mean Max. SD Min. Mean Max. SD

Mezilaurus itauba 61.7 69.0 76.8 4.2 82.5 110.3 154.0 21.0 87.6 116.6 140.8 15.2
Erisma sp. 27.3 34.5 42.6 5.1 30.6 45.4 66.7 13.8 40.3 63.2 81.7 13.4
Vataireopsis araroba 40.4 50.7 63.0 6.9 42.7 73.6 117.0 11.6 54.0 77.2 98.9 16.2
Clarisia racemosa 58.0 70.3 79.0 6.3 53.3 85.8 106.5 23.4 71.6 107.5 134.6 14.6
Ocotea sp. 44.3 52.5 60.2 5.1 50.2 89.4 124.6 18.6 79.3 97.1 111 9.4
Tabebuia sp. 42.0 64.3 82.0 11.9 52.8 96.4 160.8 27.5 76.5 119.3 159.4 21.3
Goupia glabra 30.2 52.8 72.5 11.9 28.9 68.9 115 22.1 44.5 75.8 111.8 16.4
Hymenaea sp. 75.4 93.8 109.0 8.2 103.3 153.4 210.2 30.7 86.0 157.0 211.0 29.2
Manilkara sp. 64.0 84.0 102.0 9.0 103.0 139.5 175.0 24.2 98.0 134.3 182.0 22.0
Dinizia excelsa 53.0 79.3 105.0 11.5 60.0 118.9 197.0 36.4 87.0 132.5 166.0 21.3

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 European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

was for Goupia glabra with a value of 28.9 N/mm2 , although
Erisma sp. was the second lowest with a value of 30.6 N/
mm2 . This shows that it is reasonable to consider the distri-
bution of these two species as the furthest apart from each
other among the samples used in this study for this property.
The lowest values for compression, tension and bend-
ing strength, were respectively: 27.3, 28.9 and 40.3, and the
highest values for compression, tension and bending
strength, were respectively: 109, 210.2 and 211. The lowest
mean values for compression, tension and bending strength,
were respectively: 34.5, 45.4 and 63.2, and the highest mean
values for compression, tension and bending strength, were
respectively: 93.8, 153.4 and 157. The lowest standard
deviation (SD) values for compression, tension and bend-
ing strength, were 4.2, 11.6 and 9.4 for the species Mezilau-
rus itauba, Clarisia racemose and Ocotea sp., respectively.
The highest standard deviation (SD) values for compression,
tension and bending strength, were 11.9, 36.4 and 29.2 for
the species Tabebuia sp. and Goupia glabra Aubl., Dinizia
excelsa Ducker and Hymenaea sp., respectively.
3.2 Properties relationship and behavior
Figure 1 presents the cumulative distribution of the exper-
imental results for the three properties discussed as solid
curves, and the three ratios as the black dashed curves. The
lower solid curve shown is formed by the values of the com-
pression strength, the middle one by the tension strength and
the highest being the bending strength. Until approximately
the 70th percentile value, both tension and bending strength
follow a similar behavior, above which tension strength
becomes equal and then higher at the 90th percentile. Ten-
sion and compression start at approximately the same value,
although at the 90th percentile, tension strength is higher
than bending strength, showing that compression strength
has a lower variability than both the other two properties.
The curves formed by the cumulative distribution of
the ratios of the properties shown in Fig. 1, from the lower
one to the higher, are as follows: compression to bending
strength, compression to tension strength and tension to
bending strength. It is important to emphasize that the value
of the ith percentile of one property does not correspond to
2.5
200 fc0 ft0 fm

2
Strength Value (N/mm²)

As the property relationships are conventionally treated by

using the characteristic values in the standard, this analysis 150
1.5
did the same, as a first step. The estimated 5th percentile of

Ratio
the population, for each species, was calculated by using 100
the Brazilian standard cited and the experimental 5th per- 1
centile, shown in Table 3. The Brazilian code showed for
all three cases higher values for the strength properties than 50
0.5
the experimental data. The minimum value of the ratio of
fc0/ft0 ft0/fm fc0/fm
the estimated to the experimental tension strength was 0.965
0 0
for Manilkara sp. and the maximum was 1.308 for Goupia 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
glabra. Of the 36 ratios calculated, only three were below Percentile
1.0.
Fig. 1  Cumulative distributions of experimental data

Table 3  Characteristic and 5th Species fc,k (N/mm 2 ) ft,k (N/mm 2 ) fm,k (N/mm 2 )
percentile values by species
fc,05 fc,k,NBR ft,05 ft,k,NBR fm,05 fm,k,NBR

Mezilaurus itauba 62 68 83 89 89 95
Erisma sp. 27 27 31 32 40 44
Vataireopsis araroba 58 62 56 74 74 90
Clarisia racemosa 41 44 44 52 54 63
Ocotea sp. 45 47 53 72 80 86
Tabebuia sp. 44 45 59 68 86 93
Goupia glabra 34 38 33 48 52 55
Hymenaea sp. 78 88 111 111 97 118
Manilkara sp. 68 77 107 105 99 107
Dinizia excelsa 61 66 66 83 90 109
5th percentile 61 47 36
Mean 114 104 69

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European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

the ith percentile of another property. Similar to the results

Mezilaurus itauba
obtained by Burger and Glos (1997), the ratios were not 200 Erisma sp.
Vataireopsis araroba
constant in any part of the diagram, although it can be seen Clarisia racemosa
Ocotea sp.
that in the interval between approximately the 20th and 70th Tabebuia sp.

percentiles the slopes are constant. Within this interval, the 150 Goupia glabra Aubl.
Hymenaea sp.

f t0 (N/mm²)
Manilkara sp. 8
slope for the compression to bending strength ratio was the Dinizia excelsa Ducke
EN
33
Exp Data
lowest, with a value of 0.315, followed by 0.504 for the com-
100
pression to tension strength ratio and 0.538 for the tension to 165
98
ISO
bending strength ratio. This shows that within this interval,
which comprises 50% of each sample, the first ratio cited has 50 90
71
the lowest variability. The changes in the values for the ratios R
NB
within this interval are as follows: 0.158, 0.252 and 0.269.
These slopes were obtained by linear regression within the 0
0 50 100 150 200
specified intervals. Table 4 shows the values of significant
f m (N/mm²)
percentiles of the cumulative distributions of the ratios.
Figure 2 shows the experimental results of the tension
parallel to the grain against the bending strength. Note that Fig. 2  Relationship of tension to bending strength
each species tends to be located within a particular region of
the graph. Confirming earlier observations above, the spe- Figure 4 shows the relationship between the tension and
cies that have the lowest values are Erisma sp., followed by compression strength. This figure shows the same behavior
Goupia glabra. The ones that have the highest values are of the distribution of the values as Figs. 2 and 3, regarding
Hymenaea sp, followed by Manilkara sp. and Dinizia excels. the species and magnitude of result. Of the three standards
The three approximating equations are also illustrated. used in this study, the only one that provides and estimated
The one suggested by the Brazilian standard shows a bet- value is the Brazilian standard. It results in higher values
ter prediction of the values above the mean rather than the than the 5th percentile, which cannot be considered as
lower tail of the distribution. The filled black circles indicate appropriate.
the characteristic values of the sample formed by the whole
sample, considering a minimum sample size of 40 speci- 3.3 Regression analysis
mens. The data showed better agreement with the EN 338
(2012) derived values than with those of ISO 16598 (2013), An analysis of the 5th percentiles values was conducted for
which was conservative by comparison. each pair of variables discussed for the regression. Firstly,
The behavior of the compression strength compared with for the three cases in this study, the analysis was conducted
the bending strength is shown in Fig. 3. A similar distribu- for paired variables alone, i.e. one property against the other.
tion of the species can be observed in Fig. 2, where Erisma The regression was defined to intercept the origin of the
sp. corresponds to the lowest values and Hymenaea sp. to the axis (0,0) with a linear behavior. The second analysis was to
highest. The approximate formulae found in the standards
did not represent appropriately the characteristic values of
598 (a)

the experimental data of this study. It is important to point 100

out that the formula (a) suggested by ISO 16598 (2013)
ISO 16

had few situations with lower values for the compression 80

strength than the conditional formula proposed by this same
f c0 (N/mm²)

code, represented by the Fig. 3b curve, which is the less

60
appropriate estimation of this data. Mezilaurus itauba
Erisma sp.
Vataireopsis araroba
40 EN 38
4 Clarisia racemosa
Ocotea sp.
Table 4  Percentile values for ratios from experimental data Tabebuia sp.
Goupia glabra Aubl.
20 )
Percentile ft0 ∕fm fc0 ∕fm fc0 ∕ft0 (b Hymenaea sp.

598 Manilkara sp.

16 Dinizia excelsa Ducke

5th 0.551 0.444 0.444 IS

O Exp Data

0
25th 0.747 0.525 0.557 0 50 100 150 200
50th 0.874 0.595 0.694 f m (N/mm²)
75th 1.044 0.684 0.821
95th 1.492 0.893 1.099
Fig. 3  Relationship of compression to bending strength

13
 European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

Mezilaurus itauba
with the highest slope (tension/bending strength ratio against
200 Erisma sp.
Vataireopsis araroba
tension strength). As already pointed out, the formula that
Clarisia racemosa
Ocotea sp.
best predicted the values for these two properties was the one
Tabebuia sp. in EN 338 (2012), which was the closest to the regression
150 Goupia glabra Aubl.
Hymenaea sp. defined by the experimental 5th percentile values. The equa-
f t0 (N/mm²)

Manilkara sp.
Dinizia excelsa Ducke
Exp Data
tion obtained using the regression with the dependency gave
100
a conservative estimate of the values of the lower half, while
being unsafe for the upper half, relative to the characteristic
values. The expression found by Burger and Glos (1997) did
50 not fit well for the purpose of this study.
R7
19
0
The equations suggested for the data analyzed in this
NB
study are shown in Eqs. 9, 10 and 11. It should be empha-
0 sized that these equations cannot be used concurrently. The
0 20 40 60 80 100
f c0 (N/mm²)
estimated 5th percentile can only be one of the terms on the
left, derived from known variables on the right side of the
equations; the process is not reversible.
Fig. 4  Relationship of tension to compression strength
ft0,k = 0.64867fm,k (9)
identify whether the ratios had any dependency on the other
properties. Figure 5a shows the trend analysis of the ten- fc0,k = 0.47939fm,k (10)
sion strength to bending strength ratio ( ft0 ∕fm ) to the tension
strength parallel to the grain strength ( ft0 ). To determine ft0,k = 1.015fc0,k (11)
the dependency, a linear regression was calculated of the
5th percentile of the ratio against the property for which the
trend has been evaluated, and the slope of the regression is 3.4 Validation of the analytical model
given in Table 5. The highest slope was 0.0041, as shown
in Fig. 5a. The validation was carried out by comparing the estimated
Figure  5b shows the values of the experimental data values obtained using the equation and the experimental val-
together with the equations suggested in the standards cited ues for each specimen ( fc0 , ft0 , Mmax ). For the tension and
previously, the equation obtained by Burger and Glos (1997) compression stresses parallel to the grain in the formulae,
and the two calculated regressions, one without considera- the range of the strength property values ( fc0 , ft0 ) of the
tion of the dependency (WO Tendency) and the other con- experimental data was considered.
sidering the dependency (W Tendency) for the regression

2.5
Exp. Data
200 WO Tendency
W Tendency
2
NBR 7190
ISO 16598
150 EN 338
f t0 (N/mm²)

1.5 Burger & Glos

f t0/fm

100
1

0.5 50

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
f t0 (N/mm²) f m (N/mm²)

(a) Significant trend (b) Comparative results

Fig. 5  Regression analysis evaluation

13
European Journal of Wood and Wood Products

Fig. 6  Analysis of the influence of the plasticized depth on the formulae a minimum and maximum surface values, b surface for the maximum
tension strength value

Fig. 7  Experimental and analytical model analysis a tension to bending, b compression to bending

Table 5  Trend analysis Trend Ratio Slope (mm/mm) Ratio Slope (mm/mm) Ratio Slope (mm/mm)

fc0 ft0 ∕fm 0.0028 fc0 ∕fm 0.00194 fc0 ∕ft0 0.00119
ft0 0.0041 − 5.4 (e−5) − 0.00128
fm 0.0012 0.00029 − 0.00014

The height of the specimen used for the experimental
estimation of the maximum bending moment was of 50 mm,
so the possible plasticized height is between 0 mm and 50
mm, since there is no physical meaning for a different value
in this case.
To better visually depict the results, it was found appro-
priate to evaluate the behavior of the formulae. All values
for the tension strength property were analyzed, resulting in
two surfaces as shown in Fig. 6a, where the lower surface,
was obtained from the maximum experimental value for
the tension strength, and the upper surface, for its minimum
value. The range for the bending moment used in the formu-
lae to create both graphs in Fig. 6 was the same as the one
obtained on the experimental data (40.3–211 N/mm2 ) and

13

Fig. 8  Experimental and analytical model analysis: compression to
tension
for the plasticized depth x, 0–25 mm. The results obtained
for the upper surfaces converge closer to those for the lower
surface when both moment and x-dimension values are con-
sidered. However, when the x-dimension value exceeds 40
mm, which is 80% of the cross-section, the ratio value rises
exponentially, which is inconsistent with the experimental
data, so it will not be considered in the analysis.
As the values of the plasticized depth decrease (x value
of 25–12.5 mm), the surface plot becomes concave, which
happens in the lower half of the height, as shown in Fig. 6b.
Note that the function estimates the lowest values at a quar-
ter of the total height for x.
The ranges considered for the bending moment and
tension strength were 1–5.106 N mm, and 1–220 N/mm2 ,
respectively. The surface shown in Fig. 8 was the one that
resulted in the lowest values, giving an estimate, close to the
data, for an x-dimension of a quarter of the height. This was
chosen according to the analysis of the equation behavior.
All the experimentally obtained ratios of the compression
to tension strength properties had a lower value than the
surface estimated by the analytical model.
The same procedure of analysis was applied to both
Eqs. 6 and 7, obtaining Fig. 7a, b. The first figure shows the
relationship of the tension strength parallel to the grain to
the bending strength. The experimental data shows a better
agreement with the analytical estimate in Fig. 7a, with a
mean value of 0.925 for the experimental sample and 1.154
for the analytical formulation. Figure 8 shows the relation-
ship of the compression strength parallel to the grain to the
bending strength. In this case, the experimental values did
not show as good agreement, to the analytical estimate as
in Fig. 7a, with a mean value of 0.624 for the experimental
sample and 2.703 for the analytical formulation.
13
European Journal of Wood and Wood Products
Model Error
4
0
RTM RCM RCT
Fig. 9  Experimental and analytical model error
The model error for each equation was calculated as the
ratio of the estimated value of the formulation to the experi-
mental value. The results were plotted as a box and whisker
plot (Fig. 9), where RCT is the ratio of the compression
strength to tension strength parallel to the grain, RTM is the
ratio of the tension strength parallel to the grain to the bend-
ing strength and RCM is the ratio of the compression strength
parallel to the grain to the bending strength. As indicated in
Figs. 8, 7 and 9, the analytical model gave the best estimate of
the ratio of tension to bending strength, with a mean value of
1.374, median of 1.334 and standard deviation of 0.486, fol-
lowed by the ratio of compression to bending strength and the
ratio of compression to tension strength, with a mean value
of 4.502, median of 4.470 and standard deviation of 0.863.
4 Conclusion
Several analyses were conducted in this study regarding the
bending, tension and compression strength parallel to the
grain estimate formulae suggested in standards and an analyti-
cal equation based on solid mechanics. This was done using
experimental data of 10 Brazilian tropical hardwood species.
For the determination of the strength properties by test,
the species that showed the lowest values for most properties
was Erisma sp. and the one that showed the highest values
for all properties was Hymenaea sp.. It was noted that the
results for each species tended to fall within a distinct interval,
where Erisma sp. was in the lower range for all properties, and
Hymenaea sp. in the higher range. Regarding the Brazilian
code method for the calculation of the characteristic values of
the properties, most of the values obtained were higher than
European Journal of Wood and Wood Products
the 5th percentile values from the experimental data. The ratio
of the value calculated by code formula and the values derived
from the experimental data had a range of 0.965–1.308.
Of the three pairs of relationships studied, the equation
suggested by EN 338 (2012) of the tension strength paral-
lel to the grain to the bending strength was the closest to
the data. ISO 16598 (2013) for this same relationship had
lower estimate values than the data, and for the compression
strength to the bending strength it did not show a good esti-
mate. In general, the Brazilian code showed a better agree-
ment with mean or above the mean estimations than the lower
tail. Three equations for the properties were suggested for the
data of this study, for Brazilian hardwood species.
The results of the analysis of the analytical model
derived from the moment equilibrium of the cross-section
equation shows that the best estimation was for the ratio
of tension to bending strength. The model error for this
ratio had a mean value of 1.374 and a standard deviation
of 0.486. For both the other formulae, ratio of compression
to bending strength and ratio of compression to tension
strength, a mean value of 4.502 and standard deviation of
0.863 were calculated.
Acknowledgements  This research was supported by Brazilian fund-
ing agencies: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e
Tecnológico–Brasil (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de
Pessoal de Nível Superior–Brasil (CAPES).
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