@Article{jrm.2020.09020,
AUTHOR = {Xueliang Wang, Qiangang Xu, Xiuxin Wang, Junhui Guo, Wancheng Cao, Chun Xiao},
TITLE = {Strength Degradation of Wood Members Based on the Correlation of Natural and Accelerated Decay Experiments},
JOURNAL = {Journal of Renewable Materials},
VOLUME = {8},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {5},
PAGES = {565--577},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/jrm/v8n5/38816},
ISSN = {2164-6341},
ABSTRACT = {An accelerated decay test and a natural decay test were conducted synchronically to explore the strength degradation of decaying wood members under
long-term exposure to natural environment. A natural decay test was carried out to
measure the bending strength, compressive strength parallel to grain and modulus
of elasticity of the wood members, with 6 groups of specimens decayed in natural
environment for 3 to 18 months respectively. To compare with corresponding
decay test, in which 6 other groups of specimens were measured under accelerated
conditions. The experimental data collected were evaluated by Pearson productmoment for the correlation. The results indicate that the mechanical properties
of the accelerated decay were highly correlated with those in natural environment,
both of which decreased in the same trend. Under the given test conditions, the
mean value of the accelerated decay test data were curve-fitted to achieve the
time-dependent degradation model of the bending strength, the compressive
strength parallel to grain, as well as the modulus of elasticity. Due to the high correlation, the acceleration shift factors (ASF) of the two tests were derived, where
the bending strength of 2.934, the compressive strength parallel to grain of 2.519
and the elastic modulus of 2.346 were employed to formulate the strength degradation models in the long-term natural environment. The results verify that the
exponential function σ = σ0e-βt enables to exactly capture the degradation of
the mechanical properties of wood members decayed in natural environment.},
DOI = {10.32604/jrm.2020.09020}
}