Analysis of mechanical properties of I-beam with web from transparent wood

Abstract

This article contains a brief information about history of transparent wood, its fabrication process and its physical and mechanical properties. The main goal of this article, however, is to find whether transparent wood is a suitable material for load-bearing architectural constructions. This is achieved by using numerical analysis of I-beam with web from transparent wood (and various types of it) and comparing its results with the same sized beam with web from OSB (oriented strand board) and web from glass, which are both successfully used for such applications nowadays. Suggestions on how to use transparent wood as a load-bearing material are also presented in the article.