Fracture and Fatigue in Wood

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.