TESTING OF WOOD

SAMPLES FOR:
BENDING, COMPRESSION, SHEAR, TENSION, AND WATER CONTENT
 WOOD
• AN ORGANIC MATERIAL, A NATURAL COMPOSITE OF CELLULOSE
FIBERS (WHICH ARE STRONG IN TENSION) EMBEDDED IN THE MATRIX
OF LIGNIN WHICH RESISTS COMPRESSION.
• HAS BEEN USED FOR THOUSAND OF YEARS FOR BOTH FUEL AND AS A
CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL.
 2 COMMON FORMS OF WOOD
• NATURAL WOOD
• ENGINEERED WOOD
 NATURAL WOOD
• Products that are harvested directly from trees and do not experience
any fundamental changes. These materials generally showcase the
grains and defects that are found in natural grown trees.
 ENGINEERED WOOD
• Woods that are made from natural wood that has been altered in a
fundamental way so as to change the characteristics of the wood it
was made from.
 TESTING OF WOOD
• FLEXURAL/BENDING
• COMPRESSION
• SHEAR
• TENSION
• WATER CONTENT
 BEND/FLEXURAL TESTING
• To measure flexural strength and flexural modulus.
• Flexural Strength - the maximum stress at the outermost
fiber on either the compression or tension side of the
specimen.
• Flexural Modulus - calculated from the slope of the stress
vs. strain deflection curve.
Three-Point Bend Test

• Consists of the sample placed

horizontally upon two points
and the force applied to the top
of the sample through a single
point so that the sample is bent
in the shape of a “V”.
Four-Point Bend Test

• Roughly the same except that

instead of the force applied
through a single point on top it
is applied through two points so
that the sample experiences
contact at four different points
and is bent more in the shape of
a “U”.
 COMPRESSION TESTING
• The opposite of tensile testing in that instead of pulling the ends away
from each the ends are pushed together.
Grain Compression Testing

• Requires the load to be applied

along the grains of the test
sample.
Perpendicular Grain Compression
Testing

• Requires the load to be applied

perpendicularly to the grain of
the wood sample.
 SHEAR
• Designed to apply stress to a test sample so that it experiences a
sliding failure along a plane that is parallel to the forces applied.
• To determine the shear strength, which is the maximum shear stress
that the material can withstand before failure occurs, of a material.
 TENSILE
• Wood material is placed into a universal testing machine and loaded
in a manner that pulls the sample apart resulting in the sample failing
in tension.
 MOISTURE CONTENT
• Wood is hygroscopic, which means its moisture content will fluctuate
based on the relative humidity (RH) of the surrounding air. As
humidity increases, the moisture content increases, and
the wood expands, and as the humidity decreases, moisture content
decreases, and the wood shrinks.