Wood Science and Technology 33 (1999) 199208 Springer-Verlag 1999

Shear behaviour of laminated Douglas fir veneer

L. P. Norlin, C. M. Norlin, F. Lam

199
Abstract The rolling shear and longitudinal shear behaviour of laminated
Douglas r veneers was studied using specimens with 15 layers of 2.5 mm
veneers. The rolling shear specimens were constructed such that the 3 central
veneers were cross-plies with grain angle oriented perpendicular to the long axis
of the specimen. The other layers were orthogonal to the cross-plies. The
longitudinal shear specimens had a LVL lay-up with the exception of a rein-
forcement layer of ber-glass attached to the bottom face veneer. The ber-glass
layer prevented specimens from failing in bending/tension mode and ensured
longitudinal shear failures. Specimens were subjected to static and cyclic loads in
a ``atwise'' three point bending conguration. It was found that the rolling shear
failure mode exhibited a higher fatigue resistance than the longitudinal shear
failure mode. A damage model that took the stress history into account was
calibrated to the experimental data of each specimen type. Good agreement
between model predictions and experimental results were obtained for both
failure modes.

Introduction
When laminated veneer products such as plywood or laminated veneer lumber
(LVL) are subjected to atwise bending, two possible failure modes in shear can
be identied as described in Fig. 1, (a) longitudinal shear failure and (b) rolling
shear failure. In the longitudinal shear failure mode, bers slide upon each other
along their length and failure occurs in a brittle fashion. In the case of rolling

Received 5 November 1997

L. P. Norlin, F. Lam
Dept. of Wood Science, Faculty of Forestry
University of British Columbia
#4026 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4

C. M. Norlin
Savsangarevagen 3
230 44 Bunkeostrand
Sweden

Correspondence to: F. Lam

The authors would like to thank Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. for
providing the material used in this research. Also, the rst author is
thankful for the nancial support provided by Fouquet Shanks &
Company Ltd. and IRAP
200
Fig. 1a, b. Shear Failure modes for laminated veneer panels

shear failure, the bers start to roll on top of one another perpendicular to the
ber direction. The rolling shear failure mode is typically more ductile compared
to the longitudinal shear mode.
It has long been recognized that the strength of wood and wood products is
sensitive to the phenomenon of fatigue. Fatigue can be described as the deteri-
oration of a material due to a continued repetition of stress of a relatively low
magnitude which is traditionally described by an S-N (stress level versus number
of cycles) curve. It has been found that wood and wood based composites exhibit
an approximately linear relationship between stress level (percentage of mean
static strength) and the log number of cycles to failure (Cai et al. 1996, Kommers
1943 and 1944, Lam 1992, and McNatt et al. 1991).
A special case of fatigue is the duration-of-load behaviour (static fatigue). In
recent years researchers have conducted major experimental programs (Madsen
1973, Madsen and Barrett 1976, Barrett and Foschi 1978, and Gerhards 1979 and
1988) and presented different damage accumulation laws (Barrett and Foschi
1978, Foschi and Yao 1989a, b, and Gerhards 1978) to model the duration-of-load
behaviour for dimension lumber. Due to the complexity of the creep rupture
failure mechanism, the models were empirically based and calibrated using data
from extensive laboratory work.
The progression of accumulated damage within wood can be expressed by a
state variable, a(t), which takes on values from 0 (undamaged state) to 1 (failure).
A threshold level can also be introduced, below which no damage accumulates.
One of the best known damage accumulation models was developed by Foschi
and Yao (1986a, b) which takes the form:

da
ast r0 ss b cst r0 ss n at 1
dt
The applied stress, threshold level, and short term strength are expressed by s(t),
r0, and ss respectively, whereas a, b, c, and n are random model parameters. The
model was calibrated with load duration data obtained from tests on dimension
lumber in bending, tension, and compression and it was used in the development
of reliability based design codes in Canada for dimension lumber (Foschi et al.
1989).
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the difference between longitudinal
shear and rolling shear fatigue behaviour of laminated Douglas-r veneer panels
subjected to ``plank-wise'' bending.
Materials and methods
In order to achieve controlled failures in longitudinal and rolling shear modes for
specimens subjected to a ``atwise'' bending conguration, two panel construc-
tions were developed exclusively for this study. The panel construction to be
tested for longitudinal shear strength consisted of 15 plies of 2.54 mm C-grade
Douglas-r veneers in a LVL lay-up reinforced by a 0.15 mm layer of ber-glass.
The purpose of the reinforcement layer was to prevent specimens from failing in
bending-tension mode and thus achieve longitudinal shear failures. The second
panel construction consisted of 15 plies of 2.54 mm C-grade Douglas-r veneers,
of which the three central plies (cross-plies) were oriented so that their grain
direction had an angle of 90 to that of the length of the test specimen. The 201
remaining 12 plies (longitudinal plies), 6 on either side of the cross-plies, were
orientated with grain direction parallel to the length of the test specimen. The
panel conguration was designed such that specimens subjected to ``atwise''
bending would fail in rolling shear in the cross-plies before the extreme longi-
tudinal ply failed in bending tension. The two panel lay-ups are shown in Fig. 2.
Test panels, 610 610 38.1 mm were hot-pressed in laboratory environment
using a standard plywood phenol formaldehyde adhesive. The ber-glass used in
the longitudinal shear panel lay-up was prepregnated with an epoxy resin and
applied to the face of the veneers through hot pressing.
Specimens of identical shape were cut from each test panel and randomly
divided into four and ve matched groups of 20 specimens for the rolling shear
and longitudinal shear panels, respectively. The specimens had the dimensions
406 101.6 38.1 mm.
All specimens in both static and fatigue groups were subjected to three-point
bending under center point load over a span of 406.4 mm (Fig. 3).
Two test series for static strength were conducted, one for each specimen type.
The rolling shear and longitudinal shear specimens were tested in load control
mode under a uniform ramp rate of 58.74 kN/min and 93.45 kN/min, respec-
tively. The ramp rates were chosen so that failure occurred, for both specimen
types, after approximately 15 seconds.

Fig. 2. Description of panel lay-ups

Fig. 3. Test conguration of three-

point bending tests
 Three series of rolling shear specimens were tested for cyclic fatigue until
failure with peak loads corresponding to approximately 95%, 91%, and, 83% of
the average static rolling shear strength. Similarly, four series of longitudinal
shear specimens were cyclically tested at peak loads corresponding to approxi-
mately 95%, 90%, 85%, and 80% of the static longitudinal shear strength. The load
cycles applied to the specimens had a trapezoidal shape and a duration of 30
seconds independent of the specimen type and stress level. Together with the
number of cycles to failure for each specimen, the following data were recorded
for each stress cycle: minimum deection, maximum deection, minimum load,
and maximum load.
202
Experimental results and discussion
Based on visual inspection at the time of the tests, it was observed that the
longitudinal shear specimens exhibited a more brittle failure behaviour than the
rolling shear specimens. Three failure modes were observed for the specimens
tested for static rolling shear strength at the time of the tests: (1) rolling shear
failure in the cross-plies (RS), (2) tension failure of the bottom ply (B), and (3)
combined simultaneous rolling shear failure at the cross-plies and tension failure
of the bottom ply (RS + B). Similarly, two failure modes were observed for the
specimens tested for longitudinal shear strength: (1) longitudinal shear failure in
the high stress shear zone (LS) and (2) tension failure of the ber-glass and
bottom veneer due to bending stresses (B). The distribution of the various failure
modes is presented with the summary statistics of the static tests in Table 1.
As was expected, the longitudinal shear strength was found to be higher than
the rolling shear strength. The variation of strength was found to be low for the
rolling shear specimens (COV = 4.77%) compared to the longitudinal shear
specimens (COV = 12.63%). Only specimens that failed in RS or LS mode were
included in the calculations of mean shear strength and COV.
The cyclically tested specimens exhibited a similar failure behaviour as the
static specimens. For each stress cycle experienced by a specimen, the total de-
ection from minimum load until peak load, was determined. These deection
values were plotted against the equivalent number of experienced stress cycles as
shown in Fig. 4. Failure was dened when a drastic change of slope was en-
countered. The results from the cyclic test program are summarized in Table 2.
Although the variability in the number of cycles to failure in each group was
found to be large, this is consistent with previous research on the fatigue per-
formance of laminated veneer products (Lam, 1992 and Kommers, 1943 and 1944,
Cai et al. 1996, and McNatt et al. 1991).
The results of the rolling and longitudinal shear fatigue tests are presented in
Fig. 5. The stress levels for the test data have been computed based on prediction
of the static strength of each cyclic test specimen using equal rank assumptions.
First, the distribution of the static strength of both static and fatigue series are

Table 1. Summary statistics for static test series

Test series Number Failure load Shear strength Distribution of failure modes
of Spec. Mean (kN)
Mean (MPa) COV (%)
RS 20 14.46 2.26 4.77 16(RS) 2(B) 2(RS + B)
LS 25 25.06 4.80 12.63 21(RS) 4(B)
 Fig. 4. Evaluation of num-
ber of cycles to failure for 203
cyclic specimens

Table 2. Summary of cyclic test results

Specimen Number of Peak load Mean stress Number of cycles to failure

type specimens (kN) level SR
Mean STDV
RS 15 13.96 0.95 93 131
RS 20 13.38 0.91 331 552
RS 15 12.23 0.83 1964 3033
LS 20 23.81 0.95 26 76
LS 20 22.56 0.90 96 221
LS 15 21.30 0.85 140 212
LS 10 20.05 0.80 355 865

assumed to follow a three parameter Weibull distribution with identical location,

scale, and shape parameters. Now, static strength and fatigue resistance are as-
sumed positively correlated. Therefore, if the rank (percentile) of a specimen in a
cyclic fatigue group is established, an estimation of its static strength can be made
by selecting a value at the equivalent rank in the corresponding distribution of
static strength.

Fig. 5. Fatigue behaviour of rolling shear and longitudinal shear specimens

 For each specimen type, a least square regression was conducted based on the
test data. The regression equations takes the form:

SRS 0:9863 0:0227 LnNf r2 0:90 2

2
SLS 0:9858 0:0377 LnNf r 0:91 3
where SRS and SLS is the stress level dened as the ratio between applied stress and
predicted static strength for the rolling shear and longitudinal shear specimens
respectively. Nf is the number of cycles to failure and r2 is the coefcient of
determination. Theoretically, the two trend lines should intersect with the 100%
204 stress level at 0.5 cycles. Thus, the top four data points of the longitudinal shear
series were not included in the regression analysis since they would give an
inaccurate contribution to the regression line.
Based on visual comparison of the two trend lines, it is obvious that the
specimens failing in longitudinal shear exhibited a lower fatigue resistance than
the rolling shear specimens. The difference in fatigue resistance of the rolling
shear and longitudinal shear failure mode can possibly be explained by the dif-
ference in failure behaviour of the two failure modes. The longitudinal shear
failures occurred in a brittle fashion such that after failure was initiated, the
specimen instantly lost its load carrying capacity. The failure behaviour of the
rolling shear specimens was more ductile. After failure was initiated, crack
propagation occurred slowly over many stress cycles until the crack propagated to
the edge whereupon total collapse of the specimen took place. Consequently, the
rolling shear failure mode yielded higher fatigue resistance than the longitudinal
shear failure mode.
As can be observed from Table 2, the values of the mean stress levels used in
the cyclic test series of the two specimen types are not the same. In the case of the
rolling shear specimens, the 91% test series was originally intended to be tested at
a target mean stress level of 90; however, reassessment of the failure mode of the
static strength specimens led to the culling of some specimens and the recalcu-
lation of mean stress level to 91%. Subsequently the 83% mean stress level was
chosen such that the number of cycles to failure was targeted within a practical
range of interest and not excessively large. In the case of longitudinal shear failure
mode, it was observed that it displayed lower fatigue resistance than the rolling
shear failure mode; therefore, a fourth longitudinal shear series was tested at 80%
mean stress level.

Damage accumulation model

It is desirable to identify and calibrate a damage accumulation model to each of
the two cases of fatigue data, the rolling shear and longitudinal shear data, so that
the relationship between stress level and cycles to failure can be predicted for each
failure mode. Based on a literature survey, it was decided to use an existing model
developed by Foschi and Yao (1986a, b) as shown in Equation 1. Evaluation and
integration of Equation 1 over a time period, T, yields
 R T ZT n  R o
cstr0 ss n dt n
ae j ast r0 ss b e cstr0 ss dt dt 4
0
0

If the stress history, size adjustment factor, and model parameters are known,
Equation 4 can be evaluated by performing the integration over the intervals
where s(t) > r0ss to estimate the amount of accumulated damage in a specimen
under a stress history, s(t).
Considering a ramp load case with a constant loading rate of Ks, the model
parameter, a, can be expressed in an approximate relationship by the ramp rate,
short term strength, and the model parameters b and r0 as

Ks b 1
a 5
ss r0 ss b1

Assuming no initial damage, the predicted number of cycles to failure can be

determined by 205
 
log K1 KK0 1
Nf 1
1 6
logK0

K0 and K1 can be determined through evaluation of accumulated damage during

the rst two stress cycles as:
 
a2
K1 a1 and K0 1 7
K1

where a1 and a2 is the accumulated damage after one and two complete stress
cycles respectively. Due to the trapezoidal shape of the stress cycles it was possible
to nd closed form solutions for Equation 1.
The damage model was calibrated against the two sets of experimental fatigue
data following the procedures developed by Foschi et al. (1989). Each of the four
independent model parameters (b, c, n and, r0) together with the static strength
data were assumed to be lognormally distributed. Thus, a vector, X, with eight
unknowns matching the mean and standard deviation of the four independent
model parameters was estimated through a non-linear minimization procedure
using the quasi-Newton method.

Calibration results and discussion

Due to limited sample size and high variability in the number of cycles to failure
within each cyclic test group, model calibration, based on all cyclic series of each
specimen type proved to be difcult. Thus, it was decided that the calibration
should be performed based on data from one cyclic test series of each specimen
type. The rolling shear model and the longitudinal shear model were calibrated
against each of the cyclic rolling shear and cyclic longitudinal shear test series
respectively. It was found that the calibration based on the rolling shear speci-
mens tested at 83% mean stress level provided the best overall agreement between
model predicted rolling shear behaviour and experimental results. Similarly, best
agreement between model predicted longitudinal shear behaviour and experi-
mental data was achieved based on model calibration by the longitudinal shear
series tested at 85% of the mean stress. For both failure modes, calibrations based
on cyclic series tested at high stress levels yielded models that tended to over-
estimate the fatigue performance at lower stress levels. On the other hand, the
longitudinal shear model calibrated by data tested at lower stress level (80%)
tended to underestimate the fatigue resistance at higher stress levels. The cali-
 bration results of both the longitudinal shear (LS) and rolling shear (RS) series
are shown in Fig. 6.
Cumulative distributions of predicted number-of-cycles-to-failure values were
generated for both specimen types at stress levels matching those of the experi-
mental cyclic tests. Model predicted values were picked from the cumulative
distributions at probability levels corresponding to those of the experimental
values. The model predicted and actual rolling shear fatigue behaviour using
equal rank assumptions is presented in Fig. 7. Although the model predicted
values at parts deviate from the experimental values, overall, the model predicted
rolling shear fatigue performance is in good agreement with the test data. The
206 model predictions are, as a whole, conservative compared to the experimental
data. A least-square regression line was tted to the predicted values in Fig. 6. The
model equation takes the form:

SRS 0:9851 0:0258 LNNf 8

where SRS is the predicted stress level and Nf is the number of cycles to failure for
the rolling shear failure mode. The coefcient of determination, r2, equalled 0.993.
The predicted and experimental fatigue behaviour for specimens failing in
longitudinal shear is presented in Fig. 8. Based on visual comparison, it is
evident that the model predictions of longitudinal shear specimens clearly
follow the trend of the corresponding experimental values. A regression analysis
was conducted based on the simulated values. However, the four values with
highest predicted stress level were omitted from the calculation of the regres-
sion line since they would give an inaccurate contribution to the regression
line. The regression equation for longitudinal shear fatigue behaviour, takes the
form:

SLS 0:9876 0:0416 LNNf 9

where SLS is the predicted stress level and Nf is the number of cycles to failure for
specimens failing in longitudinal shear failure mode. The coefcient of deter-
mination, r2, equalled 0.955.

Fig. 6. Model calibration result for rolling shear and longitudinal shear mode
 207

Fig. 7. Model predicted and experimental fatigue behaviour of rolling shear specimens

Fig. 8. Model predicted and experimental fatigue behaviour of longitudinal shear

specimens

Conclusions
(1) Based on two specimen types, the static shear strength in rolling shear and
longitudinal shear failure mode of laminated Douglas r veneer was experi-
mentally evaluated. It was found that the COV of the static rolling shear strength
was considerably lower than that of the longitudinal shear strength.
(2) The rolling shear and longitudinal shear fatigue performance was studied
through cyclic testing of specimens at different mean stress levels. It was found
that the rolling shear failure mode exhibited higher fatigue resistance than the
longitudinal shear mode.
(3) A damage accumulation model which took the stress history into consid-
eration was calibrated to the experimental data of the longitudinal shear and
rolling shear specimens respectively. The damage accumulation model provided a
good prediction of the fatigue behaviour in both cases.

References
Cai Z, Bradtmueller JP, Hunt MO, Fridley KJ, Rosowsky DV (1996) Fatigue behaviour of
OSB in shear. Forest Prod. J. 46: 8186
 Barrett JD, Foschi RO (1978a) Duration of load and probability of failure in wood. Part I.
Modelling creep rupture. Canadian J. of Civil Eng. 5: 505514
Barrett JD, Foschi RO (1978b) Duration of load and probability of failure in wood. Part II.
Constant, ramp and cyclic loadings. Canadian J. of Civil Eng. 5: 515532
Foschi RO, Barrett JD (1982) Load duration effect in western hemlock lumber. Journal of
Structural Division. ASCE. 108: 14941510
Foschi RO, Folz B, Yao FZ (1989) Reliability-based design of wood structures. Structural
Research Series, Report No. 34. Department of Civil Engineering, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Foschi RO, Yao FZ (1986a) Duration of load effect and reliability based design (single
member). In proceedings of IUFRO Wood Engineering Group meeting, Florence, Italy
Foschi Rom, Yao FZ (1986b) Another look at three duration of load models. In proceedings
208 of IUFRO Wood Engineering Group meeting, Florence, Italy
Gerhards CC (1979) Time-related effects of loading on wood strength. A linear cumulative
damage theory. Wood Sci. 11: 139144
Gerhards CC (1988) Effect of grade on load duration of Douglas-r in bending. Wood Fiber
Sci. 20: 146161
Gerhards CC, Link CL (1986) Effect of loading rate on bending strength of Douglas-r 2 by
4's. Forest Prod. J. 36: 6366
Kommers WJ (1943) The fatigue behaviour of wood and plywood subjected to repeated and
reversed bending stresses. U.S. Forest Prod. Lab. Rep. 1327. Madison, Wis.
Kommers WJ (1944) The fatigue behaviour of Douglas-r and sitka spruce subjected to
reversed stresses superimposed on steady stresses. U.S. Forest Prod. Lab. Rep. 1327-a.
Madison, Wis.
Lam F (1992) Performance of laminated veneer wood plates in decking systems. Ph.D.
thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Madsen B (1973) Duration of load tests for dry lumber in bending. Forest Prod. J. 23: 2128
Madsen B, Barrett JD (1976) Time-strength relationship for lumber. Structural Research
Series. Report No. 13. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
McNatt JD, Laufenberg TL (1991) Creep and creep-rupture of plywood and oriented
strandboard. In proceedings of the 1991 International Timber Engineering Conference.
London, UK 3: 457464