Influence of PEG Treatment on Fracture of Wood under Mixed Mode Loading

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) treatment on thefracture of wood under mixed mode loading. Specimens were cut from commercially dried western hemlock, Douglas fir, agath-is, spruce and Japanese cypress lumbers, and some of them were treated by PEG-4000. The experimental results were compared with various fracture criteria hitherto proposed in literatures. The fracture criteria experimentally obtained for solid and PEG treated woods do not follow any of these criteria. The fracture criterion obtained for PEG treated wood is different from one obtained for solid wood. The values of K_II at Mode II fracture obtained experimentally for PEG treated wood are smaller than one obtained for solid wood.