Coarse graining of wood cell arrangement and density dependence of elasticity

Abstract

Elastic moduli in each direction have been formulated based on a cell wall model considering a high-order structure of wood. Parameters in the equations are confirmed by comparison to best-fit experimental data, and simulation validates the model presented. The relationship between the logarithmic plots “elastic modulus vs. wood density” is linear in each direction for many wood species and the intercept in the derived equations is constant. The variations within a limited region can be neglected, i.e., they can be coarse-grained. The following parameters were considered: elastic modulus of the cell wall, the fraction of latewood in the transverse section, the density ratio of latewood to earlywood, and the ratio of radial length to tangential length.