Nilson Tadeu Mascia

Remarks on orthotropic elastic models applied to wood

Wood is generally considered an anisotropic material. In terms of engineering elastic models, wood is usually treated as an orthotropic material. This paper presents an analysis of two principal anisotropic elastic models that are usually applied to wood. The first one, the linear orthotropic model, where the material axes L (Longitudinal), R( radial) and T(tangential) are coincident with the Cartesian axes (x, y, z), is more accepted as wood elastic model. The other one, the cylindrical orthotropic model is more adequate of the growth caracteristics of wood but more mathematically complex to be adopted in practical terms. Specifically due to its importance in wood elastic parameters, this paper deals with the fiber orientation influence in these models through adequate transformation of coordinates. As a final result, some examples of the linear model, which show the variation of elastic moduli, i.e., Young´s modulus and shear modulus, with fiber orientation are presented.

Estruturas mistas em madeira-concreto: uma técnica racional para pontes de estradas vicinais

In general, the rational application of construction materials requires the development or improvement of building techniques. Thus, the use of concrete and timber, traditional materials largely accepted in rural buildings, making composite structures, constitutes a possible solution for presenting adequate structural and economical performances and durability too. In particular, the effectiveness of this structural system must be assured by a connection at the interface of the materials, and it can be of discrete (metallic elements: screws, steel bars, nails etc) or continuous types (epoxy adhesive). Several kinds of civil construction applications can be contemplated by this structural system, as in restorations or construction of new bridges. In fact, along the vicinal roads, there is a large number of timber bridges that need restorations and there is a need to construct new bridges as well. General speaking, bridges are exposed to severe weather and loading conditions, and, thus, they must be carefully studied, so that the connection mechanisms can be more precisely evaluated, as well as the composite structure behavior during its entire life. In this context, by analyzing the several aspects that involve the performance of the timber-concrete composite structures and, also the mechanical behavior of the connections in these structures, we conclude, in this article, that this construction technique is feasible for bridges in vicinal roads. Further, additional research on the long-term loading effects, temperature and moisture variations, is necessary to improve the simulation models.

ON THE EFFECT OF THE NUMBER OF ANNUAL GROWTH RINGS, SPECIFIC GRAVITY AND TEMPERATURE ON REDWOOD ELASTIC MODULUS

Due to the natural origin of wood, physical parameters such as specifi c gravity and the number of growth rings per inch affect its properties. In this study, to evaluate the effect that these physical parameters have on the elastic properties of wood, particularly on elastic modulus, a uniaxial compression test was performed on specimens. These specimens consisted of solid cubes of the Redwood species of wood with a width of 10.16 cm. Three different temperature conditions—ambient temperature (18°C), cold temperature (-28°C) and hot temperature (65°C) were used to carry out the tests. Specifi c gravity ranged from 0.29 to 0.45, and the number of growth rings per inch varied from 2 to 24 rings per inch. The minimum moisture content in the specimens was 2%, and reached a maximum of 16% according to the temperature conditions. The results from the statistical analysis indicated that the effect that the number of growth rings per inch has on elastic modulus is more signifi cant than the effects of specifi c gravity or even of temperature. As a consequence, we suggest that the number of growth rings per inch can be used as a predictor for wood elastic modulus.

MODELO ELÁSTICO ORTOTRÓPICO APLICADO A LA MADERA

La madera, entre los materiales de construccion, presenta un comportamiento ortotropico, esto debido a su estructura interna con tres ejes elasticos de simetria: longitudinal, tangencial y radial. El efecto de la orientacion angular de las fibras en el modulo elastico constituye la causa fundamental de la anisotropia en la madera. Este efecto es responsable por los grandes cambios en los valores de los componentes del tensor constitutivo, y, consecuentemente en los valores de las constantes elasticas de la madera. El objeto de este articulo es verificar la adecuacion del modelo ortotropico para la madera, expresado basicamente por el modulo de elasticidad E i referido a una direccion determinada. Se considero una transformacion de coordenadas entre los ejes del material ( L, R y T ) y los angulos de Euler para utilizar una ecuacion constitutiva para materiales ortotropicos. El proposito principal de este analisis es explorar teoricamente la transformacion de coordenadas, desde el punto de vista tridimensional y tambien, comparar estadisticamente los resultados del modulo de elasticidad obtenido a traves del ensayo de compresion en la madera brasilena de la especie, Guapuruvu, con los valores obtenidos por medio de una expresion teorica. Los resultados de este analisis, en el que el coeficiente de determinacion (R-sq) fue igual a 0.965 en un analisis de minimos cuadrados lineal, mostro que el modelo ortotropico es valido para ser aplicado Palabras clave : Modulo de Elasticidad de la Madera; Ensayo de Compresion; Material Ortrotopico.

Evaluation of Tsai–Wu criterion and Hankinson's formula for a Brazilian wood species by comparison with experimental off-axis strength tests

Abstract This article presents a study based on the Tsai–Wu failure criterion as well as Hankinsons formula that evaluates the off-axis strength of wood. For materials such as wood, the strengths are a function of the grain orientation and also are different in compression and tension for the same direction. By considering this anisotropic behaviour, the failure criterion of the Tsai–Wu was adopted in this work. To establish this criterion, the strengths were determined from compressive and tensile tests as well as shear and biaxial compressive tests. In addition, off-axis uniaxial tests were performed, and the experimental results were compared with those obtained by the discussed criteria. In these tests, specimens of Goupia glabra-Brazilian wood species were used. This studys most important conclusion was: the predictive ability of the Tsai–Wu criterion was close to that of Hankinsons formula and fits the experimental results of the compressive and tensile tests well.

Evaluation of Off-Axis Wood Compression Strength

This research focuses on the study of anisotropic material failure criteria, specifically Tsai-Wu tensor failure criterion, Tsai and Wu [1], with theoretical and experimental applications for wood.

Analysis of Fiber Reinforced Laminated Timber Beams

The necessity to restore the design specifications of a determined structure, combined with cost, weight and environmental impact reduction makes the use of high performance composite systems, involving, either synthetic or natural materials, interesting. By applying a layer of fiber reinforcement bonded with the glued laminated timber beam (Glulam) with an appropriate adhesive, a high performance composite system is obtained, resulting on a significant increase of strength and bending stiffness of the structural element that each isolated material did not have before. This paper carried out an analysis of the feasibility of use synthetic and natural fibers as alternative to structural reinforcement to laminated timber beams, made of the reforestation wood species Pinus caribea and Eucalyptus grandis that represent respectively two resistance classes of monocotyledon and dicotyledonous, exposing, through an analytical model. The numerical results obtained from the analysis of the Glulam beams reinforced with glass, carbon, Vectran® and natural fibers such as sisal fibers, are compared among each other considering cost, weight and gain of resistance and stiffness. It is observed that for small lengths (and therefore, small cross sections), the use of Vectran® fiber is not the best option, since an equivalent resistance gain can be obtained by applying a thicker layer of glass fiber, once it possesses a lower cost and a non-significant impact on the final structures weight. For all the other considered cases, the choice of the Vectran® fiber is very interesting, since on these situations a thicker layer of glass fiber does not provide much cost reduction and is not enough to achieve the desired strength without increasing the structures weight significantly. Regarding the sisal fiber, it is a material that is easy to find and with a low cost in Brazil, its utilization is interesting when working with low resistance wood species. Although the gain of resistance provided by this fiber as a reinforcement material is fairly low, the desired result can be obtained by increasing the thickness of the reinforcement layer, which still keeps the cost and weight of the reinforced element much smaller than those resulting from the implementation of a thinner layer of glass fiber.

Analysis of Wood Laminated Beams Reinforced with Sisal Fibres

Natural fibres have recently raised attention for presenting adequate mechanical characteristics for the reinforcement of wood structural elements. The use of both natural fibres, in laminated beams and wood from reforestation, is in accordance with the current economic interest and sustainable appeal. This paper focuses on the analysis the viability of sisal fibre use, in wood laminated structures as a reinforcing material, taking three methods into consideration: Stress functions, Classical lamination theory and Transformed section method. The laminated beams were reinforced by sisal strips with a thickness of 2 mm and constituted by the species of wood: Pinus (Pinus sp). Each lamina has the following dimensions: width of 5 cm, height of 10 cm and length of 150 cm. It was noted that the differences between the results from the classical lamination theory and transformed section method were, in an average of 14 % and 16 % for normal and shear stresses respectively. The difference of 12 % for displacements is a normal result taking into account that the span used is considered high for this wood species. In relation to the stress function method, the differences are minimal, around less than 1% for all analyses. It was also noted that the beam with reinforcement presented a decrease of the values of normal and shear stresses and displacements in relation a beam without reinforcing fibres. This decrease was of the order of 8% for the normal and 5% for the shear stresses and 12 % for the displacements In general, the strengthening of wood laminated beams with sisal fibres is more effective for structures that are used only in wood structural elements, in which the elastic modulus is at least equal to these fibres.

Analysis of Wood Laminated Beams Reinforced by Natural Fibres

This paper presents an analysis on the viability of the use of natural fibres, in particular sisal fibres, as a reinforcing material in wood laminate structures. The use of natural fibres associated to the manufacturing of beams, with wood from reforestation, is in accordance with the current economic interest and ecological appeal. Sisal fibres have attracted attention for presenting adequate mechanical characteristics for such application. The laminated beams used in this research were constituted by Pinus sp and were reinforced by sisal strips with a thickness of 2 mm glued by Epoxi adhesive on bottom of the beam on the tensile region. Each lamina had the following dimensions: width of 50 mm, height of 20 mm and the length of the beam is 1.5 m. For the theoretical analysis of wood laminate beams three models: stress functions, classical lamination theory and section transformed method are carried out. It was noted that the average differences between the theoretical results and experimental data are given by: 11% and 2 % for normal and shear stresses respectively, and around 8%, for displacements. As a conclusion, the strengthening of wood laminate beams with sisal fibres is effective in wood structural elements, in which the elastic modulus is at maximum equal to these fibres and also prevents fragile failure on critical tensile region.

Identificación y análisis de patologías en puentes de carreteras urbanas y rurales

A concern with a great number of bridges with significant pathological problems was the motivating factor to carry out this research. Small and medium size bridges have significant relevance for the economic and social development of the country, because they must ensure the transit of people, vehicles with raw material and local produce. However, the precarious conditions of bridges in the urban and rural areas make the displacement difficult, causing discomfort and unsafety for users. Furthermore, the transportation costs for producers and the maintenance for the local government continue to increase. This article intends to show the conservation conditions of small and medium sized bridges in the urban and rural region of Campinas (SP)-Brazil. Thus, this study is based on the analysis of four bridges of this region, in which is presented several examples in situ of the pathological manifestations in concrete, steel and wood bridges. This article also focuses on the design of bridges and its relationship with the pathological condition establishing concepts that could be applied to the corrective method and the pathology identification in concrete, steel and wood bridges. Finally, it aims to conclude that the most appropriate way to avoid a pathological state is preventive maintenance.