FRACTURE AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF WOOD

Stefanie E. Stanzl-Tschegg1, Klaus Frhmann1 and Elmar K. Tschegg2

ABSTRACT
The fracture properties of wood are strongly influenced by its inhomogeneous microstructure. The
relationship between structure and function with regard to damage and fracture behaviour can be only
understood with a sufficiently fine level of examination. In situ fracture mechanical experiments were carried
out in an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) chamber on spruce and beech. They were
performed with micro-wedge splitting specimens, and the experimental procedure is designed to allow stable
crack propagation. The ESEM-mode combined with a cooling device allows examination of the specimens at
a moisture content of 12% with unsputtered surfaces. By recording load-displacement curves and observing
crack propagation simultaneously, a detailed image of the fracture process is possible. Besides Mode I
loading, mixed mode (mode I plus II) loading could be realized by using a modified wedge splitting
technique. The resulting specific fracture energies are not algebraic sums of the tensile and shear
componenrts, but a coupling between the two modes.

1 INTRODUCTION
Wood is a highly anisotropic and complex material with a large variability of mechanical
properties. Therefore fracturing is a complex process, which needs additional methods for its
quantitative characterisation besides conventional fracture mechanical procedures. One straightforward technique is the wedge splitting technique according to Tschegg [1], which has been
developed to make possible recording of the load-displacement diagrams during the fracturing
process and to determine the specific fracture energy Gf as an important material characterising
parameter. Combining this technique with environmental scanning microscopy allows performing
in situ experiments, which give more insight into the structural features and mechanisms, being
responsible for the different fracture processes of wood in the sub-microscopic range. Some more
recent investigations will be reported in the following. They refer to these new testing techniques
as well as to results correlating measured characteristic quantitative parameters with observations
of fracture processes on different levels of magnification.
2 EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
2.1 In situ cracking in an ESEM
Using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) with a cooling device makes
observation of wood in moistured condition possible. Applying in addition an in situ deformation
stage allows to perform tensile tests or fracture mechanical measurements inside the microscope
under almost natural conditions. The tests are performed with two spindle-driven crossheads
carrying the jaws to clamp the specimens. A load cell of 1 kN is placed between one crosshead and
a jaw and is registering tensile or compressive forces. The machine is driven by a DC motor and a
gear, which enables displacement rates between 0.3 m/s up to 10 m/s. The displacement is
determined by the rotations of the motor and was 2 m/s in this study. The used equipment allows

simultaneous detection of load-displacement curves and observation of a propagating crack. The in

LVD

Loadcell
Figure 1 ESEM in situ wedge splitting device

In situ fracture mechanics tests were performed on spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst) and beech
(Fagus sylvatica L.) (Frhmann et al. [2]) after in situ tensile tests have been reported (Frhmann
et al. [3]). The specimens were oriented in the TR crack propagation system (R = radial, T =
tangential and L = longitudinal) where the first letter indicates the direction normal to the crack
propagation direction and the second determines the direction of crack propagation. The wood
samples were stored in a climate chamber (20C and 65%MC) until equilibrium moisture content
was reached before testing.
2.2 Mixed-mode Loading
In order to simulate mixed mode loading conditions, the wedge splitting technique was modified
using an asymmetric wedge (Tschegg et al. [4]). The mode I and mode II parts are varied using
different wedge angles. The mode II portion becomes larger, if the wedge angle is made larger.
Angles of 10, 25, 39 and 50 were used. Crack propagation was stable in the experiments being
performed in the RL system. The mode I and mode II displacements I and II were determined
optically in a contact free manner and the specific fracture energy for mixed mode loading Gf,M
was determined as the sum of the mode I and mode II parts of the specific energies.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 In-situ cracking of micro-wedge splitting specimens (fracture mechanics test)
Fig. 2 shows ESEM images of loaded crack tips of spruce (2a,b) and beech (2d,e) and the loaddisplacement curves registered from in situ micro-wedge splitting experiments (Fig. 2c,f). The
arrows mark positions when the corresponding images displayed in Fig. 2a,b and 2d,e were taken.
The load is increasing linearly in the first phase of the experiment. The small interruptions
originate from visco-elastic relaxation processes of the material when stopping the feed to record
the ESEM images. Fig. 2a shows the crack tip in spruce wood at a load level of about 20 N
shortly before the first step in crack propagation occurred (termed 4a in Fig. 2c). The crack tip
cut with the razor blade was located in earlywood. The crack front is widened but no

a)

d)

b)

e)

c)

f)
-10

-10

-20

-15

-30

F [N]

-5

F [N]

-20

-40

-25

-50

4a
-30

-60

4c

4b
-35

-70

in situSpruce TR-40

in situBeech TR-

4d
-80

500

1000

1500

s [m]

2000

2500

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

s [m]

Figure 2 ESEM images of loaded crack tips and load-displacement diagrams of the in situ tests
of spruce (a,b,c) and beech (d,e,f).

propagation took place so far. The first crack propagation event occurred at a load of 27 N, which
can be seen from Fig. 2b as well as from the load drop in the load-displacement diagram (Fig. 2c,
termed 4b). The crack penetrated the first latewood layer and stopped in the earlywood zone of
the next growth ring. The load increased and dropped significantly during the next step, while the
crack was passing several growth rings. Analysis of the load-displacement diagrams and the
corresponding ESEM images indicates some principle features of the fracture process. During the
linear increase of the load, the crack length remains unchanged, and no propagation or non-linear
effects such as micro-cracking or local damage are visible in the ESEM. Deviation from linearity

is accompanied by the first crack events involving several cells ahead of the crack tip. The tensile
stress ahead of the crack tip deforms the cells and fractures them. The size of this developing
process zone is rather small and extends only a few cell diameters. In some cases microcracks
could be observed in the latewood layer, which were not connected to the main crack path (Fig.
2b). The phase of quasi-static crack initiation is followed by a bigger crack extension across
several growth rings accompanied by a proportional load drop. The newly formed crack tip always
stops in the earlywood zone of the material. The compound of earlywood and latewood toughens
the material by combining high strength of latewood ahead of the crack tip with high elasticity of
the earlywood around it. This results in a comparably higher total fracture toughness of the
earlywood and favours non-stable crack propagation when penetrating latewood zones.
The load-displacement diagram of the in situ tested beech specimen (Fig. 2f) shows a linear
elastic increase in load, interrupted only by the stops of deformation during taking the photographs
and resulting visco-elastic relaxation. Figure 2d shows the crack tip at a load level of -52 N. No
crack propagation from the initial state took place so far. Before passing the first local maximum (65 N) the curve deviates slightly from linearity, which indicates beginning fracture of the material.
A corresponding displacement of 1000 m was measured. This fact can also be seen from the
corresponding image (Fig. 2e), which shows a small crack penetrating the latewood zone ahead of
the initial crack tip and stops in the earlywood. The load drops by 30% and increases again to the
global maximum of 76N before the crack propagates throughout several growth rings and the
specimen looses its load carrying capacity.
Evaluation of the recorded load displacement curves allows to determine the initial slope kinit,
which characterises the stiffness of the material, and the critical load Fmax indicating the maximum
after the linear elastic phase, and smax, which is the corresponding displacement. From Fmax, the
fracture toughness KIc and the specific fracture energy Gf may be derived (Stanzl-Tschegg et al.
[5]) with
s
1 end
(1)
Gf =
F (s ) ds
Alig 0
where Alig determines the nominal area of the fracture surface.
These quantities are strongly determined by the density of wood () and cell wall ( s). In
Table 1, the densities and measured maximum loads are listed.
Table 1. Dependence of maximum load on relative density

Spruce
Beech

(/ s)3/2

Fmax

kg/m3
440
672

kg/m3
1500
1500

0.164
0.354

N
31.5
66.7

Fvert
S
N
198.3
222.4

Considering cellular materials, Gibson and Ashby [6] correlate the critical fracture toughness
of wood loaded normal to the grain with the relative density /s where s is the density of the cell
wall material by the equation:

K Ica = 1,8
S

(2)

Considering the identical geometry for all specimens of this study and the validity of Linear
Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) we may assume proportionality between the critical fracture
toughness KIc and the critical load Fmax for crack initiation. Hence the ratio between critical load
and density relation should be constant.

K Fmax
a
Ic

Fmax

= const.

(3)

Introducing the obtained data of the maximum load and the densities into eqn (3) results in ratios
of 198,3 N for spruce and 222,4 N for beech. The relatively small difference indicates that the tests
confirm the dependence of fracture toughness and relative density given in the literature for wood
in the TR crack propagation system.
3.2 Mixed mode fracture energy of sprucewood
Owing to the orthotropic structure of wood (long tubular cells oriented parallel to the stem axis)
considerable differences in material response to loading in different loading directions must be
expected. Therefore, fracture mechanics experiments have been performed not only in the crack
opening (mode I) mode and under shear loading (mode II and III) (Frhmann et al. [7], Ehart et al.
[8]) but also under mixed mode (mode I + II) loading conditions on spruce and beech (Tschegg et
al. [9]).
The resulting load-displacement curves verify that an increased mode II portion with increasing
wedge angle is obtained. The shape of the load-displacement curves (not shown in this paper)
points to a more brittle material behaviour under the mixed-mode loading condition. The mixedmode specific fracture energies Gf,M are plotted in Fig. 4 versus increasing wedge angles and thus
increasing mode II portions. Most interesting, a minimum of the specific fracture energy at a
wedge angle of 25 is obvious. This behaviour indicates a non-linear coupling of the mode I and
mode II components (mode coupling) under mixed mode loading, as has been suggested by
Holmberg et al. [10] using the fictitious crack model (Hillerborg et al. [11]). They showed in their
simulations that a coupling between the modes means that the tensile and shear stress components
of the fictitious crack zone are functions of both, the opening and the shear displacements and will
lead to a minimum in the specific fracture energy for mixed mode cases.

Fig. 3: Specific fracture energies for mixed mode loading in the RL system of spruce wood.
Increasing of is equivalent to an increasing portion of mode II (Tschegg et al.[9])

4 CONCLUSIONS
Combination of ESEM with a cooling device enables direct observation of the fracture processes
of wood in an atmosphere with a defined moisture content. In situ deformation stages have been
developed to perform tensile, as well as fracture mechanical tests in the ESEM. Thus the
simultaneous detection of load-displacement curves and crack propagation features is possible. For
both, tension as well as fracture mechanical tests, specimen shapes were developed that allow
complete fracture detection until final fracturing. Experiments have been performed on spruce and
beech wood in TR orientation. Information was obtained about microscopic fracture phenomena
related to the structural features and their influence on mechanical as well as fracture mechanical
characteristic values. Thus the mechanisms being responsible for the cracking processes can be
identified on a sub-microscopic level.
Testing fracture mechanical properties in the ESEM supports the assumption that fracture of
wood in the TR system can be treated by Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics principles. The results
verify the dependence of fracture toughness on relative density, as has been modelled for wood as
a cellular material.
A modified wedge splitting technique has been developed in order to perform mixed mode
(Mode I plus Mode II) fracture tests and determine specific fracture energies, Gf. Measurements
showed that a coupling of the Mode I and Mode II components takes place. This means that tensile
and shear stress components of the fictitious crack zone are functions of the crack opening as well
as the shear displacements, leading to a minimum of the Gf values for mixed mode loading with
high Mode I components.
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