Determination of elastic properties of beech plywood by analytical, experimental and numerical methods

Abstract

This research article examines the application of various methods to determine the effective elastic properties of beech veneer-wood composites. Using laminate theory, the theoretically calculated effective values of the in-plane and out-of-plane modulus of elasticity as well as shear modulus are compared with the values determined from the natural frequencies of flexural, torsional and longitudinal vibrations of samples having different orientations and numbers of composite layers. The samples are also modelled using the finite element method, and their natural frequencies are calculated by the modal analysis. Research has shown that the laminate theory, which is well established and applied in the world of synthetic composites, can also be applied to beech plywood composites, where the theoretically calculated effective values can be up to 15% higher. Similarly, due to the higher calculated effective elastic properties, higher natural frequencies of flexural, torsional and longitudinal vibrations are also calculated by the finite element method.