PROPERTIES OF WOOD

UNIT 4
WOOD’S STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES

 Wood’s structural properties are critical to how it performs and is used in buildings and other applications.

 Two important properties are strength and stiffness.

STRENGTH
 Strength is when the material
breaks under load. This is its
failure point.
STIFFNESS
 Stiffness is how much it bends
under a load.
TOUGHNESS

 Wood is tough, and hence it is used in different sports equipment like hockey sticks, baseball bats and tennis rackets.
THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY

 Very low

 It is a good insulator of heat and electricity.

 This is why wood is used to make handles for tools.

SOUND CONDUCTIVITY

 It is good. This is why it is used to make certain musical instruments.

PROPERTIES

 Wood does not have fixed properties.

 Even pieces from the same tree are different.

 We will study general properties of wood that influence its applications.

DENSITY

 Density is the relationship between the mass and the volume of a piece of wood.

 Usually, all kinds of woods are lighter than water; that’s why they float on water.

 This is why it is used to build ships.

HARDNESS

It can vary a lot.

It depends on the type of wood (density, age, etc.), the structure and cutting direction.

Wood is not very hard and this makes it easier to work with.

However, it is hard enough to be sturdy, so it is used to build furniture, houses, boats, etc.