THE MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR OF RADIATA PINE UNDER COMPRESSION

To investigate connection details under compression stress using FE methods, one needs to know not only the compression strength but also the complete stress-strain behaviour including the hardening of the wood for all directions. Up to now, this data is unavailable for New Zealand Radiata Pine. To gather the missing information, comprehensive compression tests were carried out according to different testing standards including different loading configurations and using different evaluation methods. Furthermore, these include different load-to-grain angles as well as different load-to-annual ring directions. Both, the stress-strain behaviour including softening and hardening parts and the material properties are analysed and described. The results are presented and provided in this paper.