Fracture and Fatigue in Wood

What is known about the failure processes surrounding wood comes almost entirely from empirical evidence gathered for engineering purposes. With only limited resources and the need to obtain practical results quickly, the timber engineering research community has avoided the route of scientific inquiry.

Wood is the world's most used structural material but its deformation and failure processes are poorly understood compared to knowledge about man-made materials like metals, concrete, ceramics, glass and plastics. Combining materials science, wood science and engineering mechanics perspectives, Fracture and Fatigue in Wood steers away from empirical experience and focuses on a mechanics-based study of deformation and failure in wood, providing a deep understanding of underlying physical processes.

Fracture and Fatigue in Wood covers:

• interpretation of experimental information about fracture and cyclic and static fatigue behaviour of wood;
• the latest modelling techniques and test evidence on fracture and fatigue microscopic processes;
• wood structure, ranging from molecular to gross levels, physical and mechanical properties of wood and their inherent relationship;
• models for predicting fracture and cyclic and static fatigue in wood;
• practical application of information, concepts and models of mechanical properties for fracture and fatigue in wood, components and structural systems.

This unique resource will appeal to postgraduate students in timber engineering, solid mechanics and wood science. Wood scientists, materials scientists, and structural engineering practitioners and researchers will also find it a valuable reference.

Damage in wood is principally the result of fatigue. Fatigue is the process of progressive localised irreversible change in a material, and may culminate in cracks or complete fracture if conditions that initiated or propagated the process persist. Comprehensive understanding of fatigue and fracture in engineered wood components must be founded on a proper understanding of the damage processes.

Although wood is the world's most widely used structural material, whether measured by volume consumed or value of finished construction, its behaviour is not well understood even by people who have spent their careers studying it.
* What is known about failure processes comes almost entirely from empirical evidence collected for engineering purposes.
* Hypotheses about behaviour of wood are based on macroscopic observation of specimens during and following tests.
* With only limited resources and the need to obtain practical results quickly, the timber engineering research community has steered away from the scientific approach.
* Forestry practices are changing and are known to influence characteristics of wood cells therefore there is a need to periodically reassess the mechanical properties of visually graded lumber the blackbox approach.


Fatigue and Fracture of Wood examines the above issues from a scientific point of view by drawing on the authors' own research as well as previously published material. Unlike the empirical research, the book begins by examining growth of wood. It briefly examines its structure in relation to how trees grow, before assessing the fatigue and fracture of wood and discussing the scientific methods of modelling fatigue.
* Covers from macro to micro behaviour of wood
* Presents direct evidence of how wood fractures using Scanning Electron Microscopy
* The first book to present a physically correct model for fracture in wood
* Provides experimental proof of so-called memory in wood (i.e. dependence of fatigue behaviour on the loading sequence)
* Givse practical illustrations of how theories and models can be applied in practice


An essential resource for wood scientists/engineers, timber-engineering practitioners, and graduate students studying wood and solid mechanics.