Friction of wood on steel

Abstract: This thesis deals with the experimental description of friction between steel and wood materials, specifically laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and pine wood with two types of annual rings. It studies the influence of a number of different parameters on the coefficient of friction such as contact pressure, moisture content, fiber orientation in relation to the load direction, steel surface roughness, and horizontal load rate. First, the theoretical mechanical and physical properties as well as the coefficient of friction itself are described. This is followed by the description of the test setup including the test method and how the obtained data is exported, handled and processed and how the coefficient of friction is determined. The results study the influence of different parameters and show that the coefficients of friction for the smooth sliding plate tests vary in between 0.1 and 0.3, whereas tests with the rough sliding plate vary around 0.7. Factors influencing the coefficient of friction were found to be the different moisture content under all tested pressures, the different fiber direction under low contact pressure, the contact pressure itself, though under higher pressures the influence was found to be low, and the horizontal load rate under low pressures. The outcomes are further discussed in the discussion chapter.