Experimental investigation on Iroko wood used in shipbuilding

Abstract

The paper deals with investigations about mechanical properties of Iroko, a hardwood species used for structures in shipbuilding as glued laminated timber. Experimental tests have been carried out to assess strength, stiffness and density of Iroko in accordance with current EN Standards. All the results obtained by tensile and three-point bending tests, along with the statistical analyses performed to define the characteristics values of some mechanical properties, are reported in the paper. These values allowed to assign the strength class, reported in EN 338 Standard, to the investigated Iroko wood population. The experiments have taken into account both solid timber strips and scarf-jointed strips, in order to evaluate the influence of such a type of joint, which is widely used in wooden shipbuilding on strength and stiffness. Eventually, peculiar investigations have been carried out to analyse the failure mode of some test pieces through special experimental techniques: three-dimensional computed tomography and infrared thermography

Experimental investigation of impact behavior of wood-based sandwich structures

“…Sandwich structures are lightweight composite structures that have been widely used in numerous sectors, such as the automotive, aerospace, marine and energy industries, due to their several advantages: high specific bending strength and stiffness, excellent damping, and thermal insulation [1,2]. Low carbon emission and sustainable development are shared goals in the transportation industry and one way of achieving them is to implement lightweight materials based on renewable materials.…”

Confinement device to assess dynamic crushability of wood material

“…1,12 Consequently, wood is an orthotropic material which is generally assumed as transversely isotropic. Usually, standard tests are conducted 13 in order to characterize the mechanical properties of wood species required in numerical analysis. 14 However, wood is widely used as an absorber in shock configurations 7,15,16 and thus, particular properties such as the specific energy absorption for example, are required.…”

Experimental investigation on low-velocity impact response of wood skinned sandwich composites with different core configurations

“…Thus, renewable materials like woods are emerging as a possible alternative to non-renewable materials [1][2][3]. For instance, wood-based eco-structures are widely used for meeting the requirements of marine, automotive and environmental-friendly building applications [4,5]. For marine applications as an example, wood based sandwich structures are mainly used as components of the decks, partitions or elements for ceilings and floor structures [6].…”