Evaluation of dynamic excitation as a method for strength and stiffness grading of wet side boards of narrow dimensions

Abstract:  The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the use of dynamic excitation as a method for stiffness and strength grading of wet side boards of narrow dimensions. The need for such an investigation has previously been identified in an ongoing research project in which the possibility to use side boards as lamellae in wet glued glulam beams is investigated.      The assessment of the dynamic excitation method was carried out by means of experimental work and measurements.. The approach was quantitative in the sense that the data was collected through experiments performed on a rather large population and that the results were analyzed using statistical methods.      To investigate the effect of moisture content on stiffness of narrow dimension, side boards, the stiffness was measured in three states: - in wet state, before splitting the boards, - in wet state, after splitting the boards, and - in dry state (splitted boards).      The conclusion, after calculations and analysis of all the results, was that the natural frequency and stiffness of wet boards could, with a high degree of reliability, be predicted by use of the dynamic excitation method. There was a strong correlation in stiffness between wet state split boards and dry state split boards, with a coefficient of determination of 0.93.