Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Timber Structures for the Validation of an Orthotropic Plasticity Model

Although wood is used as a favourite building material among concrete and steel, the mechanical behaviour was not scientifically investigated yet as one would expect. To be able to perform more realistic simulations of timber structures by means of modern numerical simulation methods like the Finite Element Method (FEM), a suitable constitutive material model is required. Such a material model was developed by Mackenzie-Helnwein in [1] for clear spruce wood and was extended by Fleischmann [2] considering the influence of knots and the deviation of the fibre direction around the knots on the strength properties. Further an implementation of the material model in a Finite Element software was done. For the validation of the material model numerical simulations of wooden structures using FEM and comparison of the obtained results with those of corresponding experiments were done for two test series. The results of these tests will be presented in this contribution. 2. Constitutive Material Model