Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood

dc.contributor.advisorGarrett, G Gen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBoatright, Stephen William Jamesen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-23T06:58:02Z
dc.date.available2016-03-23T06:58:02Z
dc.date.issued1977en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: p. 150-160.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractWood is a popular constructional material; annually the world uses approximately 10⁹ tons of it, which is more than twice that of steel. It is a little surprising, therefore, that in comparison to steel, little progress has been made in research on the mechanical properties of wood. This is particularly so in the field of fracture, which has relevance not only to the structural use of timber, but also to the important processes of machining and cutting. One of the reasons for this relative lack of knowledge concerning the fracture behaviour of wood, is that wood has such good specific toughness properties that the designer has little recourse to rigorous brittle fracture criteria. In addition, attempts to relate gross mechanical properties to the micromechanical behaviour have been hampered by insufficient knowledge of the microstructure itself. However, with the advent of electron microscopy, much of the nature of this complicated cellular composite has been established, and the Materials Science approach to the assessment of the mechanical and fracture properties of wood is now possible. Wood contains many types of strength reducing defects. Checks for instance, are cracks, usually in the radial-longitudinal plane, and are caused by preferential shrinkage during seasoning. Knots, on the other hand, are far from being crack-like and involve much grain disturbance and also a loss in load bearing area. There is some attraction, therefore, in attempting to use a quantitative fracture mechanics approach to assess the strength of flawed timber, since this is a method of analysis which has been developed to deal with fracture which initiates from inherent flaws. Although, as will be reviewed in Chapter 2, this approach has been the subject of various recent studies, it is shown in subsequent chapters to have serious limitations as a practical fracture criterion for wood. This is particularly so in the most common structural situations where wood is stressed parallel to the grain, in which case failure from inherent crack-like defects, such as checks, is only of secondary importance. Nevertheless the general fracture mechanics methodology is relevant to an investigation such as this one, combining as it does a consideration of the microstructural behaviour, and its effect on the gross mechanical properties.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationBoatright, S. W. J. (1977). <i>Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment ,Centre for Materials Engineering. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18186en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationBoatright, Stephen William James. <i>"Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment ,Centre for Materials Engineering, 1977. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18186en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBoatright, S. 1977. Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Boatright, Stephen William James AB - Wood is a popular constructional material; annually the world uses approximately 10⁹ tons of it, which is more than twice that of steel. It is a little surprising, therefore, that in comparison to steel, little progress has been made in research on the mechanical properties of wood. This is particularly so in the field of fracture, which has relevance not only to the structural use of timber, but also to the important processes of machining and cutting. One of the reasons for this relative lack of knowledge concerning the fracture behaviour of wood, is that wood has such good specific toughness properties that the designer has little recourse to rigorous brittle fracture criteria. In addition, attempts to relate gross mechanical properties to the micromechanical behaviour have been hampered by insufficient knowledge of the microstructure itself. However, with the advent of electron microscopy, much of the nature of this complicated cellular composite has been established, and the Materials Science approach to the assessment of the mechanical and fracture properties of wood is now possible. Wood contains many types of strength reducing defects. Checks for instance, are cracks, usually in the radial-longitudinal plane, and are caused by preferential shrinkage during seasoning. Knots, on the other hand, are far from being crack-like and involve much grain disturbance and also a loss in load bearing area. There is some attraction, therefore, in attempting to use a quantitative fracture mechanics approach to assess the strength of flawed timber, since this is a method of analysis which has been developed to deal with fracture which initiates from inherent flaws. Although, as will be reviewed in Chapter 2, this approach has been the subject of various recent studies, it is shown in subsequent chapters to have serious limitations as a practical fracture criterion for wood. This is particularly so in the most common structural situations where wood is stressed parallel to the grain, in which case failure from inherent crack-like defects, such as checks, is only of secondary importance. Nevertheless the general fracture mechanics methodology is relevant to an investigation such as this one, combining as it does a consideration of the microstructural behaviour, and its effect on the gross mechanical properties. DA - 1977 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1977 T1 - Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood TI - Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18186 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/18186
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationBoatright SWJ. Studies on the fracture and fatigue of wood. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment ,Centre for Materials Engineering, 1977 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18186en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Materials Engineeringen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherWooden_ZA
dc.titleStudies on the fracture and fatigue of wooden_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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