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Design of Timber

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Design of Timber

Uploaded by

naveen kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Modern Construction Materials

Prof. Ravindra Gettu


Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 22
Wood and Wood Products - 1

(Refer Slide Time: 00:30)

We will continue with the lecture on wood timber and wood products. We have looked until
now at the microstructure and little bit in the properties. Now we will continue to look at the
engineering properties of wood and then we look at some applications of wood and timber
products. Here in the lead slide, I have pictures of the Hadimba Temple at Dhungri near Manali,
this is from the 16th century and almost the entire structure is made out of wood probably of the
Devdar. It is a very nice structure if you are near Manali, you can see very intricate carvings on
the pillars and this pagoda type roof that the temple has.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)
Now, let us start looking at the engineering properties of wood. With regard the elastic
behaviour, wood is linear elastic only over a small strain range that is, there is a small
displacement over which the behaviour is linear elastic.

The elastic modulus or the Young’s modulus is highest in the longitudinal direction that is
parallel to the grain that is where we saw that the primary bonds are aligned and the elastic
modulus is lowest in the tangential direction that is across the grains or between the grains
where you only have secondary bonds like van der Waals in hydrogen bonds. The values of the
Young’s modulus in the longitudinal direction generally range from 6 to 17 Giga Pascal. For
example, teak has a Young’s modulus of about 9 GPa in the green state that is as soon as it is
cut and slightly higher about 10.6, when the moisture content is about 12%, we will use 12% as
a reference when we talk about seasoned wood.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:29)


With regard to the strength, first looking at the tensile strength, the tensile strength of wood
parallel to grain that is along the direction of the fibres is generally high. It ranges from 70 to
150 mega Pascal. The failures strain that is when the tensile strength is reached is generally
very small in the direction parallel to the grain in the order of about 1% that is the failure strain
is about 1% in tension when the load is applied parallel to the grain. The failure occurs within
the secondary walls of the cells; remember we had talked about the primary in the secondary
walls of the cells, the fibrils break. And this rupture occurs with the breaking of the primary
bonds that is the covalent bonds that comprise the polymers which make up the walls of the
cells. The strength perpendicular to grain, the tensile strength perpendicular to the grain is
smaller in the order of 2 to 9 mega Pascal and when stress or load is applied perpendicular to
the grain, the failure occurs by separation of the micro fibrils. Remember again that we had
talked about fibrils or bundles of polymer chains, these chains start separating with the breaking
of the secondary bonds that is the van der Waals and the hydrogen bonds. And here since these
bonds separate easily, the strains can be quite high and the cells has also distorted leading to
higher strains.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:21)


In bending where we have the modulus of rupture limiting the allowable load that we can put
on. The modulus of rupture along the grain is in the range of 40 to 100 mega Pascals, so this
would be the bending strength. The failure generally starts with crushing in the compressive
zone that is the top in case, you are applying a vertical load from the top starts crushing and at
the end failure occurs with the rupture of the bottom fibres that is the cells that are aligned at
the bottom start fading. Teakwood has the modulus of rupture about 80 mega Pascal the green
state and at moisture content of 12% about 100 mega Pascal. So, you can see the values are
quite high compared to many other materials that we use in construction like concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:21)

In terms of compressive strength again parallel to the grain, the strength is only half of that of
the tensile strength in the range of about 25 to 60 mega Pascal. Teak has a parallel to grain
compressive strength of about 40 mega Pascal in the green state and about 60 mega Pascal at a
moisture content of 12%. This is because the cell walls start buckling and there is a local
collapse of the cell wall decreasing the compressive strength. So that is what we say here, in the
longitudinal direction, the failure occurs by kinking of the micro fibrils and buckling of the cell
walls. If you can imagine these fibres like a bunch of straws and if there is load in the direction
of the straws, the straw walls buckle. So, similarly we have in wood, the cell walls buckling and
there is kinking of the micro fibrils, kinking of the chains leading to local deformation and
compressive failure.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:39)

In the other direction when compressed perpendicular to the grain these are again hollow cells,
so the cells start collapsing at a stress of 3 to 10 mega Pascal. Again, if you can imagine a
bunch of straws, if you crush the straws perpendicular to their longitudinal direction, then the
straw walls will collapse and flatten, so that is what happens in the cell. After the collapse, the
deformation continues to increase because now the cells become flat until complete collapse
and consequent increase in load after that because the cells have completely collapsed and they
are flatten. Then the load can again increase but we have crossed the useful deformation limit of
the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:31)
Now, this can be explained by looking at the microstructure in this picture. If load is applied or
stress is applied along the direction of the cell walls then we can have quite high load carrying
capacity. After that, there is kinking of the cell walls, the cell walls start to buckle and collapse
leading to a failure like this. See here, you have the grains aligned in the direction of the load
and you have kinking that is local distortion of the micro fibrils and the chains and this
propagates in a shear type failure.

Now, if we were to apply load in the other direction, you could be applying load in the
tangential or radial directions again, you have in both the cases the cell walls now collapse. You
can imagine that we are trying to push these cell walls together. There is a lot of strain; the load
carrying capacity is low until the cells completely collapse. If it is in radial compression, you
have some rays which will take some of the compression load and in the tangential direction the
rays do not really help much in the load carrying capacity in compression.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:57)

In shear, again the strength depends on whether the primary or the secondary bonds are broken
and if the fibres are being broken or just separated. So, we say that the shear strength of wood
depends significantly on whether primary or secondary bonds are broken during failure,
primary being the covalent bonds and the secondary bonds being the van der Waals or
hydrogen bonds. Therefore the direction of failure with respect to the grains determines the
strength. Shear parallel to grain is common because lot of times we are loading along the
direction of the grains and this involves breaking of the secondary bonds because we are
shearing one cell wall against another and these cell walls are bonded primarily by van der
Waals hydrogen bonds. The corresponding strength is in the range of 5 to 15 mega Pascal, in
the case of teak it is about 9 mega Pascal in the green state and about 13 mega Pascal, when the
moisture content is about 12%, now, this is parallel to the grain. When we have shear failure
perpendicular to the grain then we have to cut the cell walls and the shear strength is generally
high.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:09)

Let us look at the variability which is always of concern when we talk about wood because it is
a natural material, we have discussed these issues in the first part of the lecture. We see that the
coefficient of variation based on tests of Greenwood.

This is taken from the USDA document that is you will find the reference at the end. The
modulus of rupture has a coefficient of variation about 16%, modulus of elasticity has 22%,
work to maximum load which decides the crack resistance or the resistance to crack
propagation is about 34% which is quite high, impact bending 25% coefficient of variation,
compression between 18 to 30%.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:22)
Shear strength about 14% coefficient of variation, tensile strength 25%, hardness, toughness 20
to 35%, specific gravity can vary by about 10%. So, you find that all properties of wood have
high coefficient of variation and this should be taken into account when we decide the
characteristic value that has to be used in the design calculations. Again these are values based
on tests of Greenwood and similar coefficient of variations also occurs in season wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:05)

Wood is such that the mechanical properties generally decrease when heated and increase when
cooled. This effect is reversible but we should keep in mind that as the temperature of wood
increases, the properties decrease in value that is the strength and the Young’s modulus
decrease as the temperature goes up. At very high temperatures there is a permanent
deterioration of the wood that is the microstructure breaks down and you cannot have a
reversible effect at high temperatures, there is a permanent degradation or deterioration of the
wood.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:54)


Creep is also significant in wood. Creep is the increase in string as the load is kept constant or
the stress is sustained in a material. We find that creep is quite significant that is why you will
find that in very old structures you will see that the rafters or the girders or the beams would
have deflected a lot so much that you can visibly see the deflection in these structures. Creep is
higher when the temperature is higher and there is more moisture in the air and therefore in the
wood. So, protection of the wood against moisture is very important otherwise, this moisture
creeps into the wood and creep can increase and you will have more deformations with time.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:45)

What about the thermal properties? In the case of thermal conductivity, structural soft wood
timber at 12% moisture content that is in the season state has the thermal conductivity in the
range of 0.1 to 1. 5 watts per meter Kelvin and this is quite low compared to metals like which
would have 216 for aluminium, 45 for steel. It is comparable to what we have in concrete and
glass 0.9 would be the value for concrete, 1 for glass, but not as low as mineral wool which is a
very good insulating material. But generally we see that wood is a good insulator; it does not
transfer heat very easily. The thermal conductivity however increases with moisture content,
temperature or specific gravity that means as the material becomes wetter or the temperature
increases or it becomes denser that is specific gravity increases thermal conductivity also
increases.

Since the thermal conductivity as well as the heat capacity of wood are low. Wood does not
absorb or release heat quickly that is why when you touch wood it does not feel hot or cold to
the touch as some other materials such as metals. So, when you touch wood, it gives a
comfortable feeling, you do not feel as if it is cold to touch and this is because of the low
thermal conductivity and the heat capacity of the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:36)

In terms of thermal expansion, the thermal expansion parallel to the grain is in the range of 30
to 45 times 10 to the power of -6 per Kelvin. The thermal expansion coefficient across the grain
that is perpendicular to the grain is proportional to the specific gravity, as the material becomes
denser, it expands more and it ranges from 5 to 10 times the parallel to grain coefficient, that is
perpendicular to the grain the expansion is much more than along the direction of the grains.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:23)
Wood can be attacked by fungi and insects. Wood that is always dry does not decay however, if
wood is wet, it can have decay. On the other hand when wood is constantly submerged in water
that is it is always under water, then the deterioration is quite slow, since only a few bacteria or
fungi can attack the wood under water. So, the worst case is when you have wetting and drying
of the wood or the wood is always moist.

So, in hot and wet climates deterioration is quite rapid rather than in cool and dry climates, this
is something that we have to keep in mind. And when you have a hot wet climate, the wood has
to be sealed. We have to ensure that the wood does not absorb moisture from the air and
therefore deteriorate with time. The problem with the decaying wood at the early stages is that
you do not really see the damage occurring. And when you detect decay, already significant
weight loss has occurred, there is damage which has occurred to the wood which is too late to
repair. And when the weight loss reaches about 5 to 10%, the mechanical properties have
already decreased by 20 to 80% in some cases. So, it is very important to keep wood dry and to
have wood sealed in hot and wet climates.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:06)


Now, other than decay due to fungi, we can have wood attacked by insects. Termites are very
common that all of us are concerned about when you have good furniture or wooden structures.
Wood is consumed by termites, some beetles and wood wasps and so you can see the
deterioration can be significant where the structural element completely breaks down. But
sometimes you do not see what is occurring inside, like on the surface there could be just like
pin holes but inside there is very significant deterioration.

So, on the surface though you might have very little damage, inside you can have significant
damage. So, this is the problem again we have to ensure that the wood is protected against
termite attack and it is sealed on the surface. In salt water generally, wood is safe however, it
can be attacked by marine borers such as ship worm and gribble. But generally if the timber is
underwater nothing much happens to the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:22)

Fire is also of big important concern when we are talking about timber as a structural material.
Timber is a combustible material that is it burns. However, in the case of a fire we find that
timber can maintain its strength as temperature increases and the time under fire is large even
better than steel because it does not deteriorate that much and it does not conduct heat as steel
would.

Now, what happens in a fire? As the temperature at the surface increases beyond 100 degrees
Celsius, volatile gases are emitted that is there are gases coming from the wood and sometimes
these could be disturbing to the people and can cause some extent of asphyxiation. In excess of
250 degrees Celsius that is, as the temperature goes beyond 250 degrees Celsius, if there is a
flame outside the timber element, the gases which are coming out can ignite and burn.

However, if there is no flame there is only heat, then the temperature has to rise beyond 500
degrees Celsius for the wood to catch fire by itself. So, if there is a flame, there is an active fire
then at 250 degrees Celsius, the volatile gasses catch fire, but if there is no flame and only the
heat is increasing, then the timber itself does not catch fire until about 500 degree Celsius.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:09)


The chemical bonds that make up the cell walls and the microstructure start degrading as the
temperature increases beyond 175 degrees, so in the range of 175 to 350 degrees Celsius, the
chemical bonds have broken and the microstructure has degraded. This degradation of the
cellulose which makes up the cell walls results in the production of more volatile gases and the
degree of polymerization decreases, so there is a breaking apart of the bonds and the cell walls.

Due to pyrolysis, that is the action of the fire, there is darkening of the timber and further
emission of volatile gases. Then the reaction becomes exothermic that is the wood starts to burn
and resultant is the charring or the formation of charcoal on the surface. The volatile gases
which are coming out of the burning wood, cool the charcoal and block incoming convective
heat, so it starts insulating the inside of the wood. So, the charcoal protects to some extent the
inside of the wood and as long as sufficient wood is inside your structural element, there is no
collapse or breakage of the structure element. But as time goes on, the charcoal starts to crack
and this material drops off and the inside material now starts to become charcoal and the
burning progresses towards the interior of the element.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:49)
So, that is shown in this diagram; this process where you have heat coming out by the volatile
gases that are coming, there is radiation of heat outside and they could be heat coming in
through convection also. This zone is what has burnt charcoal or a charring zone is formed and
as the volatile gases of the timber now that is being heated comes out, there is some convective
cooling. This part is cooled and protects the interior of the timber. There is some conduction but
again the charcoal is a poor conductor, so unless it cracks and falls off, heat does not conduct
inside.

There is a zone which is degrading that is called the pyrolysis zone, this is the zone which is
where the wood is degrading and going to catch fire and become charcoal. So, until this
charcoal is in position, then the interior is to some extent protected but after some time it will
crack and fall off and the pyrolysis will enter into the heart of the timber element.

So, as we said the formation of the char or the charcoal protects the unburned timber and failure
occurs only when the unburnt section cannot withstand the applied load. So, as long as you
have a sizable part of the timber unburned, the structural element does not collapse.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:31)

We also have to understand that timber is processed before it is used, that is the tree has to be
cut into logs and the logs have to be cut into suitable pieces of timber and this process is called
conversion.

Lot of wood is actually lost during conversion, when we make timber pieces about 30 to 50%
of the wood is actually lost in this processing. This is one reason why processed wood is better
because nothing not much is wasted. However, if we have to use planks of wood or large pieces
of wood, lot of material is wasted in the conversion. After sawing, the timber is graded
depending on the type, grain direction, knots, sapwood, worm holes, and so on.

In India, grading is done according to the type of wood and the visible defects in the wood. In
the United States and other countries, timber for construction is stress graded that is just like
you would have a grading of concrete, wood is also stress graded depending on strength,
stiffness and uniformity of the size of the pieces of wood. Non-destructive tests can also be
used to verify the mechanical integrity that is how strong or how uniform the properties are of
wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:13)

Let us look at some applications of timber. We used to have and in some places, we continue to
have lot of roofs made out of timber where this is called a rafter type roof, where we have
different elements. We have the end studs holding up the sides, then we have these plates, we
have the rafters here holding up the roofing material, the collar beams, this is the ridge board
and so on. And then there are joints which have to be properly made like what is shown here in
in this drawing where we have to ensure that the rafter is properly joined to the columns and to
the top plates. So, this would be a typical structural system for a roof on which there could be
tiles placed or shingles and so on.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:14)

Now, there are and they have been lot of houses, buildings made in this manner. This is what
you see in the picture where you would have a roof like what was shown in the previous
diagram and in addition here, even the walls are made out of timber. These are logs cut into
square sections and used to make the wall of this house.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:46)

So, not only do we have older houses or rural houses made out of wood, you can also have
modern homes with timber structural framework. These are pictures from Melbourne, Australia
where you have homes which do not look as if they are made out of timber because the
structural framework is hidden and then they could be cladding which could be something like
brickwork or plaster, stucco and so on. These pictures show you homes where the structural
framework is timber even though, outside it does not look the same. There are some places
where the timber is visible; these are planks of timber at the bottom.

You see the timber when one of these houses are demolished, this is the house, this is a picture
taken of a house being demolished and you can see the rafters, you can see the entire structural
framework of the roof. And here you can see the wall as it is being torn apart; you can see the
structural framework inside the wall also.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:18)


Timber can be used for larger buildings as well. This is the framework of a commercial
building, this could be in the United States or some other place where wood is common and you
can have a building with 3 or 4 floors even made out of timber.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:42)

They have been bridges that have been built on timber. Here, you see one in the picture and
these bridges can come up quickly can be assembled quite quickly and that is one of the reasons
why timber is used.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:59)
Timber is also used a lot in waterfront and oceanfront applications because there is no problem
of corrosion that you could have in the case of steel or concrete. So, you can have wharves and
jetties made out of timber and even entire buildings could be made with their structural
framework of timber. Now, what you see here and you can see here as well. These are fender
piles which are driven into the sea bed or the river bed. And these protect the structures when
ships are moved or boats are moved and these fender piles now resist any horizontal loading
that can come because of the boats. So, these are called fender piles and as long as the wood is
well protected or very deep under water, there is no decaying which occurs in these piles.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:09)

We can have more applications on the waterfront. This is a walkway and decking stairs all
made out of wood on the seafront. We can also have poles of all sorts, these are poles for
electrical and telephone lines made out of tall trees and these poles have been quite common for
a long time.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:38)

A major application of timber is in scaffolding and formwork for concrete. We have all sorts of
applications in this case on the left top what you see are planks of timber which are used for
formwork for the slab and for the beams at the top.

And you can also have formwork for the walls, this is plywood and then struts and shoring for a
concrete wall that is going to be cast. Then you can have even more basic construction again
with wood. Here the wood is used for supports or shoring as well as for the formwork of the
slab and for the beams. So, here plywood would be used or plank are would be used and at the
bottom you will have poles of timber that are supporting the formwork of the slabs and the
beams. You can also have boxes made out of timber for casting of the concrete columns. Here
you see that these are wooden boxes inside it concrete will be placed and then the wooden
formwork obviously is removed and even the support structures are all made out of wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:13)

We can have more complicated formwork as well where there is an extensive design that has to
be done of the formwork that itself becomes like a structure that has to be designed for loads
and deformations.

In both these pictures, you see formwork for shell roofs, this would be the shell roof that will be
cast on top of this formwork. This is similar to scaffolding and this is the whole support system
that we see. This is for another shell being going to be cast with shotcrete and this is the
formwork for that. Now, concrete will be shot on top and then this formwork will be removed
and you will have the concrete in the shape of this formwork.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:04)
I had mentioned that there are processed timber products or composites made out of wood. One
such composite is called glulam, for glued laminated timber. This is not very common in India
but countries like the United States use them a lot. Here, the timber is manufactured by gluing
together a large number of relatively short pieces of timber. So, short pieces of timber are cut
and glued together and by gluing such pieces, Glulam timber can be obtained up to say 40
metres in length and over 2 meters deep and these can be curved or straight. So, you can get
large elements which would be practically impossible to get from a single tree, the pieces are
glued together such that the green directions are generally parallel, that is you have the grains or
the fibres running along the direction of the longitudinal axis of the glulam element.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:17)

This could be more expensive than sawn timber however, there are lot of advantages. First, the
size, you can have different sizes, large sizes and depths that could be needed and will come
ready from the factory.

Architecturally, also it looks nice, it need not be painted, and you can have the joints give an
architectural effect. Seasoning has its advantage because a thick piece of wood will take a long
time to be seasoned however, here seasoning is faster since only the individual pieces are
seasoned before they are glued together. You can have varying cross sections and we can also
have varying grades depending on what we want in a certain application.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:14)
Couple of pictures of glulam applications here, you see a 3 hinged deck arch bridge of highway
16 in the United States near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Here you have the arch
spanning 47 meters and suppose an 8 meter wide roadway on top. This is the roadway on the
deck and this is the 3 hinge arch. You have one hinge here and the other 2 hinges at the support.
So, you can see the glulam element, large spans and with the curvature coming ready to use. So,
the assembly is fast and the construction does not take much time.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:59)

You can have portico frames, these are frames again made out of glulam. This is a picture from
the USDA document, you see here this; this is now all made out of glulam instead of individual
pieces put together at the site, this whole element comes ready to assemble or put in place.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:24)
There are other composites that we are more familiar with in India; plywood being one of them.
Plywood is made out of panels and sheets, that are made from thin veneers of wood, that is a
thin layer of wood is taken and one is glued to the other like what is shown here. And generally
we find that the grains are in alternate perpendicular directions that is, if in one layer the grains
are along this direction, the other veneer will have grains in the other direction. So, therefore
you have something like an isotropic behaviour in the plane of the plywood. You do not have
all the grains in one direction but you have grains in both direction and we saw that the
properties in the direction of the grains are always better. So, when you put these alternative
sheets, then you have almost similar properties in both these directions.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:36)

Advantages of plywood, it can be made in large sheets, because it is just a question of gluing
the veneers one on top of the other, it is split resistant because the fibres are not running all in
the same direction so, it does not split that easily if a nail is driven through or if a screw is
driven through the plywood. And as we saw before because the veneers are placed right angles
to each other in terms of the fibre directions, you can have same properties in both directions of
the sheet.

And if at all, there are knots in the previous part of this lecture, we looked at the effect of knots,
if at all there is a knot it is limited to only one veneer or ply, the knot does not run through. So,
you do not have the possibility of a knot dropping out of a sheet of plywood that could possibly
happen in the case of timber. Shrinkage and swelling are also minimize more because the
plywood can be coated and protected against water entering. And again because of the
directions being interchanged between one ply and the other, you do not have a large amount of
shrinkage or swelling in one direction. So, there are lot of advantages in plywood.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:06)

There are other composites like particle board where chips of wood are dried, mixed with the
resin and press together to form boards, this is called particle board. Typically, the particle
board will have 3 layers. The faces; the outside layers consist of fine particles and the inner
layer consists of coarse particles. Therefore, you get a good finish on the surface and interior
you can have coarser material that can be used.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:39)


Other composites are fibre board, where instead of pieces, the fibres are put together, strands.
You can even have cement bonded particle board, where pieces of wood are bonded together
with cement. And this gives a good appearance, more stiffness and sometimes when you have
cladding or partitions made out of cement bonded particle board, it gives the feeling of masonry
or it could give the feeling of concrete having been used. We can also have composites which
could have wood fibres with a matrix that is a thermoplastic. So, that would be the case of
wood being used as filler in polymer matrix. This brings down the cost and also gives rise to
lighter elements.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:50)


We will know more about these composites in the next lecture where we will have someone
from industry coming and talking to us about the different wood based composites.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:59)

So, here are some references which are quite useful, there are lot of material is available on the
web that you can also look at.

So, to summarize in this lecture, we have looked at timber wood and wood products and we
have seen why timber is a useful material. It has been used continues to be used as a structural
material in different areas depending on the availability of wood and timber. And in other
places, it is more used for decorative applications, furniture is still being made of wood. And
we have more and more the usage of wood products that are made out of pieces of wood put
together like particle boards, chipboard and so on and this will continue to be there because it
has a lot of advantages in terms of structural behaviour, aesthetics and the ease of machining,
cutting and putting it together. Thank you.
Modern Construction Materials
Prof. Ravindra Gettu
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology– Madras

Lecture – 23
Wood, Timber and Timber Products

Welcome to lecture 13 of Modern Construction Materials. We are going to talk about timber,
wood and wood products and we all know that timber has been used for a long time. Probably, it
was the first construction material used by human beings. Even today, many people consider
timber as the most sustainable construction material. As long as we can grow wood in the form
of trees in forest, cut them down, replant and have the trees growing again. Then it is certainly a
sustainable material. All of us would certainly agree that wood is aesthetically appealing, easy to
work with and it has a lot of benefits in structural applications.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:15)

What you see here on the screen are pictures of the Naggar Castle near Manali in Himachal
Pradesh. This is from the early 17th century. It is a beautiful building with very intricate
carvings. The walls are made out of stone reinforced with timber and many of the external
structures, pillars and floors are made out of timber.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:48)
As we know, wood is a naturally occurring biological material. It grows as trees and as I said it is
probably the world’s oldest structural material along with stone. Since it is easy to produce and
handle, produce in the sense that the tree grows by itself with probably some help from us, it is
easy to handle and therefore it is widely used as a construction. The annual production of wood
is tremendous. It is about 1 billion metric tons. So, a lot of wood is used in one form or the other.

For construction, we will see in the second half some applications and also in furniture. Wood
has good structural properties. It is aesthetically appealing and relatively cheap. Again, the
cheapness or the cost depends on the type of wood and the durability of the wood. Though wood
is vulnerable to fire and decay through biological attack, it can last for a very long time if
properly maintained, i.e., if it is coated and sealed, it can last for a very long time. And if the
weather is such that there are not major changes in humidity and temperature, again it can last for
a long time.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:18)
Let us compare the properties of wood with some other materials. In this table what we have
done is looked at 4 different properties with reference to the density. So, the materials that are
compared are wood, mild steel, aluminum alloys and concrete. In the first column, we have the
Young's modulus divided by the density or the elastic modulus normalized with the density and
you find that wood has a value of 20 to 30, same range as mild steel and aluminum and better
than concrete which is obviously much heavier.

In terms of the tensile strength, again divided by the density or relative to the density, we have
wood having values of 120 to 170 much better than mild steel and comparable to aluminum
alloys and much better than concrete which is very weak in tension and also has a high-density.
In terms of the compressive strength, again wood has good value 60 to 90 which is comparable
to aluminum and much better than concrete.

Fracture toughness K1c/ρ the density, again in wood, you have a wide range from 1 to 12 which
is comparable to the metals and much better than concrete which is a brittle material and a
heavier material. So, we find that in terms of properties with respect to the unit weight, wood
comes out very strongly compared to other materials and therefore it is a structural material that
has been used for a long time and will continue to be used as long as it is available.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:33)
Wood however is more complex than many other materials, because first of all it is a natural
material. There are at least 30,000 species of trees and many of these are used to give us
construction materials and this variability between the species alone leads to a tremendous
variation in the properties of wood. So, depending on the species of tree we can have very
different properties.

And that is why we have certain types of wood which are more common in construction or more
ideal for construction. Wood is a composite material where we have a variety of properties at
different scales and therefore the analysis in the modeling is to a certain extent complex. Being a
natural material, it can have a lot of flaws and imperfections which again can control the
structural behavior.

Lastly, an aspect which makes wood again very different from other materials is that it is
anisotropic because of the way the tree grows.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:52)
Trees are divided into 2 broad classes, hardwoods which are basically tropical broadleaved
deciduous trees and these have some porosity they have vessel elements in the wood. Examples
are Teak, Sal and Oak. Softwoods are conifers. They have needle or scale-like evergreen leaves
and they are generally nonporous. Examples are Fir, Pine and Cedar. The fact that some are
called hardwoods and some are called softwoods does not mean that the hardness of the wood
actually changes. It is just a nomenclature to divide the woods according to how they grow and
what they look like.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:45)

Some common Indian species are given here; teak which is a very popular wood which has an
appealing brown color. It has good dimensional stability and natural durability. It is not attacked
by termites very often and it does not change dimensions when temperature and humidity
change. The heartwood that is the interior part of the wood varies from yellow brown to dark
golden brown.

Then, there is a wood called Padauk which is more red orange in color, this is a medium density
hardwood. And in some cases now we are finding a lot of applications of Rubberwood which is a
light hardwood and after seasoning it become lighter in color. So, I put some of the images of the
wood here to see that we have a range of colors which gives different aesthetic appeal.

And when you have a clear coating on the wood, the color and the grains are brought out here.
The design that you see comes from the grains that make up the wood structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:11)

There are other common species of trees that are used in construction in India. For example, Sal,
which is strong hardwood and dark brown in color. Deodar, a light durable wood, and light
brown in color. And a wood that is used a lot in furniture because it is very expensive to be used
in construction is rosewood. It is a heavy wood with high strength. The heartwood varies in color
from golden brown to dark purplish brown with black streaks. So, these and many other types of
wood are used in India for construction.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:46)
Now, in order to understand why we have the anisotropy and the variability in the properties of
wood, we have to understand how the tree grows. Now, all of us have seen trees and basically
you have a crown the visible part above the soil which and is held up with a trunk which is where
most of the wood that we use in construction comes from. At the base, you have an enlargement,
there is a buttressed base and in the soil we have a system of roots, a taproot and several roots at
the side giving us the lateral root system which holds up the tree, sucks up the water and the
capillaries take the water and sap up the tree to help the tree grow. Now, if we were to take a
piece of wood from the trunk and look at it closely you would see something like this. You
would see in the interior the pith, then you have the heartwood which is harder wood that is not
living any more, then, we have the sapwood where the sap is being transported up the tree. And
when you look at the cross-section you will see a lot of rings. Each ring represents one year of
growth. The springwood is lighter and larger when compared to the summerwood. On the
outside, we have the cambium which is the growing layer and on the very outside you have the
bark of the tree.

The direction of the growth of the tree is the axial direction or the grain direction. This is where
most of the fibres will be aligned here. There are some cells which are also leading to lateral ray
is forming, but most of the grains are running along the axial direction. Perpendicular to that, we
have the tangential direction tangential to the circumference of the tree and then the other
direction is the radial direction.
These are the 3 principal directions of the properties of wood; the axial direction, the tangential
direction and the radial direction and all of these are in reference to the growth of the tree
because the direction of the growth of the tree or the longitudinal direction is where we have the
best properties because the fibres run along that direction.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:40)

So, at the macroscopic level, we can identify the outer bark which is a rough layer of protection
for the inside of the tree. The inner bark transports the saps from the leaves to the growing parts
of the tree. The cambium is a layer of tissue about 1 to 10 cells thick between the bark and the
wood. The sap wood is the wood on the outside which conducts moisture from the roots and
stores food.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:15)
The heartwood is the inner core which is non-living. It is hard, more resistant to decay and drier.
Then, we have a small amount of cells called rays that grow in the horizontal direction. So, this
is basically what we observe in the macroscopic level and this gives us the different properties as
the directionality of the properties as we will see later.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:43)

So, again we have now a section of a tree trunk. We have the outer bark, the inner bark and the
cambium that makes up the outermost layers. Then, we have the sap wood which is where the
moisture is running and then we have the heartwood which is drier and harder. Right in the
middle, we have the pith and we have rays which can be running across and then you have these
giving us these lines and each ring tells us how the growth occurred during one year.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:30)

The annual rings are what gives the most distinct feature of the tree trunk. It also gives a certain
design and aesthetic appeal when the wood is cut across a ring. As the cells of the cambium grow
and divide during the growing season, they form these ring of cells around the truck. In spring
where there is more water, rapid growth, these cells of the cambium have larger dimensions with
thin walls and this is called the springwood or earlywood.

Later when there is less water, the cells are smaller with thicker walls and therefore end up being
harder and stronger. This is called summerwood and latewood, and since there are these
differences which occur over a year, we have a distinct look or the annual rings which can be
distinguishable in the cross-section of a tree.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:40)
Other than this we have what are called knots. Knots are where a branch grows out of a trunk.
You can have a green knot where there is a good integration of the knot with the rest of the wood
that there is no weak interface between this part where the branch grew from and the trunk.
Sometimes what happens when the branch grows part of the bark of the branch is embedded in
the wood of the trunk and this gives us now a weak interface is called a black or dead knot. And
a plank is cut, this part can come out very easily because it is not bonded, it is not integral with
the rest of the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:37)

So, a green or live knot occurs if the cambium of the branch is still alive when it fuses with that
of the truck and there is continuity in growth. If the cambium of the branch is dead, there is
absence of continuity and the trunk grows around the dead branch and even the bark and
therefore you get a black or dead knot and as I said before these knots may drop out of the plank
on sawing or later and this has to be avoided.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:10)

When we look at the microstructure, wood is made up of cells that are bundled together and
therefore it can be modelled approximately or crudely as a bundle of aligned tubular cellulose
cells fibres glued together. You can imagine it as a bunch of straws glued together making up the
structure of wood.

The middle lamella bonds the neighbouring cells that the cells are bonded to each other by this
middle lamella. The cell itself has 2 walls. The primary wall of the cell is thin with randomly
oriented microfibrils. Microfibrils are bunches of polymers that are held together. The secondary
wall of the cell has 3 layers. A thin outer layer, a thick middle layer and a thin inner layer and
these layers have microfibrils oriented in different directions. Microfibrils again are bunches of
polymer chains.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:32)
Here you see this better. So, each of these boxes is a cell. The middle lamella is what bonds one
cell to the other. The cells itself has a primary wall with randomly oriented microfibrils and then
we have 3 layers in the secondary wall; the middle layer, the outer layer and the inner layer. The
middle layer is thicker than the inner and the outer layers and these have fibres in different
directions. So, this makes up the basic cell unit which gives us the properties of the timber.

Now, at the bottom right we see a transmission electron micrograph of a cell wall. This is the
middle lamella. This is now the cell wall. We have the primary layer on the outside and then we
have the outer layer, the thick middle layer and a thin inner layer.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:48)
Now, what makes up the cells or what are the different types of cells inside wood. In soft woods,
90% of the volume of the wood consists of longitudinally oriented cells called tracheids. These
are along the axis of the tree. Then, there are a few transversely oriented cells called
parenchyma. So, these are perpendicular to the direction of growth of the tree. In hardwoods
other than these 2, we have other aspects also.

The microstructure is more complex. They have the tracheids and the parenchyma in the
hardwoods but in addition they also have fibres and pores.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:40)

So, this would be how a tracheid looks like. So, these are the cells in the earlywood. They would
be larger and with thinner walls and in the latewood they are more slender and harder and inside
you see how the earlywood tracheid cell walls look like. So, they are like this hollow tubes
which are making up the cells.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:12)
The microstructure can be visualised this way. These are some 3-D images of wood blocks seen
as softwood. We have the tracheids and some parenchyma running in the other direction. In a
hardwood in addition to this, we have some fibres and we have voids also in hardwoods.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:38)

These are the different types of cells found in the softwoods and hardwoods. In the softwoods,
we have the tracheids and the parenchyma. In the hardwoods in addition to these 2 we have
fibres and pores or conduction vessels. The function of each is given here. The parenchyma
basically work for storage, the tracheids for conduction of sap and moisture and also for support,
the fibres basically for support and we have these large vessels of pores for conduction.
These are relatively how the shapes and the dimensions look like. The length of the parenchyma
is very small or 200 microns. The others are in the order of a millimetre to a couple of
millimeters in length, the width, the parenchyma, tracheids and fibres are in the order of about
20-30 microns. The vessels are wider ranging to about 500 microns. So, these are the different
cells that are found inside the timber.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:58)

What makes up these cells. All wood is composed of cellulose lignin, hemicelluloses and minor
amounts of other materials, extraneous materials in the cellular structure. Variations in the
characteristic and volume of these components and differences in how they are put together in
the cellular structure makes the wood either heavy or light, either stiff or flexible either hard or
soft. So, all wood has the same microstructural materials which build up the wood. The way they
are put together and the relative proportions give us the different properties of the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:47)
Cellulose is the major component. It constitutes approximately 50% of the wood by weight, i.e.,
half the wood weight comes from cellulose and this is a high molecular weight linear polymer
built from the glucose monomer. When something is a linear polymer, you remember that you
can have some amount of crystallinity that there possibility of having these molecules arranged.

So, during growth, these cellulose molecules arrange into strands called fibrils and these
molecules are bonded together by a combination of hydrogen and van der Waals bonds making
up the cell walls of the wood fibres. So, most of the cell wall cellulose is crystalline, i.e., there is
an orderly arrangement but some part is non-crystalline, but most of it happens to be crystalline.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:50)
Lignin is the gluing material that binds the cell together. Lignin constitutes 23% to 33% of
softwood, 16% to 25% of hardwood and as I said it is a cementing agent that bonds the cells
together. Lignin is a 3-dimensional phenylpropanol polymer. We also have hemicelluloses which
are branched low molecule weight polymers and we can have low quantities of extraneous
materials like oils, resins, fats, calcium, potassium and magnesium.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:34)

So, this is the relation between what happens on the nanoscale and what happens in the
microscale. We have a tracheid here, softwood cell few millimeters long and if you look at the
cross-section you would see the cell wall. The outside is the primary layer and then we have the
secondary wall with 3 different layers and within the layer you have these cellulose chains
bonded together as microfibrils, most of the region is crystalline.

You can have lengths of about 30 to 60 nanometres of crystalline region, then small non-
crystallinity comes in where there is a disorder and this together makes up the microfibrils again
a few nanometres in width. So, this builds up into giving us the cell wall. Now, if we were to
take a section, a longitudinal section which looks like this where you have the chains of
cellulose, a cross-section again shows us these molecules of cellulose which make up the
microfibrils.

So, in a very basic level, we have polymer behaviour which leads on to the behaviour that we see
in terms of the properties of wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:16)

So, we saw that wood is orthotropic in nature, i.e., along the direction of growth it will have
different properties than in the radial and tangential directions. This is because of the way the
tree grows. There are, therefore, now 9 independent constants that are needed to describe the
elastic behaviour of wood. In an isotropic elastic material, we would just need 2 constants, the
Young’s modulus and the Poisson's ratio. But here because you have the directionality because
you have the orthotropy and the behaviour is different in the longitudinal direction, radial
direction and the tangential direction, we need now different elastic properties depending on
which direction we are considering. Again to remind you, the longitudinal direction is the fibre
direction or what is also called the grain direction and this is the direction that the tree trunk
grew.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:20)
Now, depending on how the log is sawed, how the boards are made and planks are made where
you have a quartersawn board, i.e., from the middle almost along the diameter or a plainsawn
board which is at the other end near the outside of the tree cut across like this. You can have the
grains oriented in different ways. This affects the properties and also the look that we have in the
wood. So, the way of sawing affects the properties of the timber as well as the decorative
features.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:03)

Let us start looking at some of the properties of wood. The specific gravity is a very important
property because we find that many of the engineering properties are related to specific gravity
or the relative density. For all species of wood, the specific gravity of the cell wall material itself
is about 1.5. This does not vary from one type of tree to the other. The specific gravity of the cell
wall itself is always about 1.5.

However, there is a lot of void space and porosity which changes the specific gravity of the wood
from 0.04 which is the case of balsa wood which is very light to something that is denser to
about 1.4 for a species of tree called lignum vitae. And as I said there are these differences which
come between the species due to the variations in the void space and porosity within the
geometry of the wood cells and the grouping. Remember we have talked about the differences
between the softwood and the hardwoods. So, there are a lot of variations in how the cells are put
together and the type of cells and their relative proportions in the wood which give rise to
different specific gravities is in the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:30)

Specific gravity as I said before is a good indication of the mechanical properties. Within the
same species, mechanical properties vary linearly with specific gravity, i.e., if you take
teakwood, a particular teakwood with higher density, higher specific gravity will have better
mechanical properties than another teakwood with a lower specific gravity, that is what this
means. Other than the mechanical properties, another significance of the specific gravity is that
lower specific gravity gives more ease for cutting the wood with a sharp tool. So, suppose
engraving has to be done, sculpturing has to be done, intricate elements have to be made out of
wood, then it is better to use wood with a lower specific gravity because you have less density
and it is easier to shape the wood. However, for structural purposes we want better mechanical
properties and therefore we go with the wood of higher specific gravity.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:48)

In terms of moisture content, it is very important to understand the different effects. Initially as
soon as a tree is cut, the moisture content of greenwood, i.e., fresh wood is very high. It can
range from 60% to 200% depending on the type of wood and how it is grown. So, there is a lot
of moisture in the wood.

Green timber i.e., freshly cut timber will yield moisture to the environment, i.e., it will lose
moisture to the environment because the environment is generally drier than the timber itself.
Consequently, it shrinks, i.e., it changes its dimension. So, obviously we cannot use fresh timber
in a structural element and allow it to lose moisture and change its dimensions. Later on, we will
see that this is the reason why we season timber and we reduce the moisture that is there.

For every combination of relative humidity and temperature of the environment there is an
equilibrium moisture content of the wood, i.e., that if the wood is left in an environment for
longtime, it will reach a certain moisture content that is an equilibrium with its environment, i.e.,
it will not continue to decrease or increase much more as long as the environment does not
change. However, there are a lot of environments which do change.
You have a wet season, you have a dry season and again we cannot allow the moisture content of
the wood to vary a lot, so that is why we have to seal wood. We have to protect the wood from
losing or gaining moisture after it is being put into place in a structure. However, initially we
would like the wood to lose moisture such that it does not shrink or change dimensions later.
Also we will see in a minute that the moisture content also is related to the strength and other
properties.

Lower the moisture content better are the properties and therefore we would like the moisture
content to be lower. Another important fact regarding moisture content is moist wood is more
susceptible to attack by fungus. So, fungi can attack wood which is in wet conditions and moist,
that is another reason why we do not use green timber as such. We allow the timber to dry, we
would like the timber to be drier when we are using it in a structure. And we seal it such that it
does not gain moisture from the outside and we do not allow the wood to be wet often. So, for all
these reasons, we want timber to be dried before its usage.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:55)

The process of drying the timber is called seasoning where there is controlled drying done to
remove the sap, reduce the moisture without causing cracks and distortion because if there is
sudden drying; if we were to do this drying very quickly, the process of removal of the moisture
will cause cracks and a lot of distortion. Natural or air seasoning takes about 2 to 6 months.
It is faster if it is immersed in water before drying because all the sap comes out into the water
and drying is faster. This is what was traditionally done but there can be artificial means of
seasoning by using kilns, boiling, using chemicals for the seasoning and even electrical
seasoning to create heat within the wood to dry off the moisture. So, seasoning is something that
is very important and for construction purposes even for making furniture, we always use
properly seasoned timber.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:03)

So, what happens during this drying? Moisture in wood exists into 2 forms, free water within the
cell cavities in the hollow parts of the cell and bound water which is absorbed in the cell walls.
So, there is some water in the cell walls bound to the polymer molecules. As the greenwood
dries, as the freshly cut wood is seasoned and allowed to dry, first the free water evaporates, i.e.,
the water that is not bound which is within the cell cavities comes out first.

We reach a certain point called the fibre saturation point where all the free water has been
removed but the cell walls are still saturated. We have removed all the water from the interior of
the cells but the walls themselves are still saturated with water. This generally occurs at moisture
contents of about 25% to 30%, that is called the fibre saturation point. Until that point in time,
the properties do not change much and there is not much shrinkage when you are removing the
free water.
If we continue to remove water, further removal of moisture compacts the molecular structure
leading to better hydrogen bonding. So, the molecular chains now are free of water that is
separating the molecules. They come closer together and the hydrogen bond becomes stronger.
Consequently, the wood shrinks and becomes stronger, the properties become better. This
process is, however, reversible.

This is very important to remember that we should protect the woods such that water does not
enter into the wood because again what will happen is the wood will swell and it will become
weaker. So, we have to protect the seasoned wood such that water does not enter. In all
environments which are prone to major changes of moisture in the air, wood should be well
protected.

Only, in cold dry environments, we can expose woods. This happens in the north of India, you
can have some places where wood need not be protected and still can last for a long time; but in
most other parts, we have to protect wood so that there is no entry of moisture after seasoning of
the wood which can lead to swelling and weakening of the wood.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:50)

So, this graph tells us what we discussed in the previous slide where we have on the X axis the
moisture content of wood and on the Y axis we have the maximum compressive stress or the
compressive strength of wood. And as we remove moisture; say we have a greenwood with
about 100% or 120% moisture content, we start removing the water. We remove the moisture
and now we are first removing the free water.

So, we remove the free water. The strength does not change much with this change of free water
content. Then, we reach the fibre saturation moisture content, fibre saturation point and if we
continue to decrease moisture even beyond this, this is about 25% to 30% then we find that now
the cell walls are drying. There is compaction of the cell walls, the molecular chains are coming
closer together.

There is better hydrogen bonding and therefore the material strength increases. So, if we
decrease the moisture content much below the fibre saturation point, we have an increase in
strength and this is what we want. So, this is what we want to achieve by proper seasoning.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:24)

This we find in many other properties also. This is a graph from the USDA document where we
have different properties such as tension, tensile strength parallel to the grain, bending strength
or modulus of rupture, compression parallel to the grain, compression perpendicular to the grain,
tension perpendicular to the grain and we find that in all the cases we have a decrease in the
property as the moisture content increases.

So, during seasoning we first remove the free water and then as further moisture is removed, we
have an increase in the strength. Only in the case of the tensile strength parallel to the grain, we
have a reversal here. When the material becomes very dry, it becomes brittle and you can have a
tensile failure at very low moisture content. But otherwise always you have a trend like this
where as we remove water, until the free water is removed, there is no change in the property and
afterwards as we remove the cell water or the bound water, the property becomes much better.
So, this is what we achieve during seasoning.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:40)

Along with the removal of moisture content, we experience a dimensional change in wood or
along with the reduction of moisture content, the wood experiences a dimensional change or
shrinkage. So, when there are changes in moisture content above the fibre saturation point, the
dimensional stability does not change, if the moisture content now is lowered below the fibre
saturation point, there is volumetric shrinkage of wood which is approximately proportional to
the volume of water removed.

So, the wood shrinks proportional to the volume of water that it loses. Shrinkage is, however, not
the same in all directions. We find that in the longitudinal direction, it will be the least and it will
be more in the other directions.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:50)
This shrinkage is important because during seasoning of a timber piece, since we have
differences in the shrinkage in the 3 directions of wood, we will have distortion or warping of the
element. So, we can have flat, square and round pieces and this diagram shows you depending on
where it has been cut out of, it can warp or it can have more uniform decrease of volume or the
circle can become like an ellipse.

So, depending on where in the log the plank is cut or the piece is cut you can have non-uniform
change in volume or non-uniform change in the dimensions and this has to be kept in mind when
we cut a log into pieces. The tangential direction we have shrinkage that is almost equal to that in
the radial direction and both of these are much higher than the shrinkage in the longitudinal
direction, i.e., along the direction of the growth of the tree.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:14)
So, if you look at values as I said the longitudinal shrinkage is very small, it is normally
negligible. However, the tangential and the radial shrinkage the values these are strains can be in
the range of 3% to 12%, the tangential shrinkage being higher than the radial shrinkage. Some
values for teak radial shrinkage can be about 3%, tangential shrinkage can be 6% and overall
volumetric shrinkage can be about 7%. The shrinkage in the longitudinal direction is almost
nothing for teakwood.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:09)

So, this again shows you how shrinkage occurs as a function of the moisture content. On the Y
axis, we have the moisture content as percentage in wood and on the X axis is the shrinkage. So,
we find that as the moisture content decreases, i.e., we are drying the wood, we can have
shrinkage in the tangential direction which is quite high followed by shrinkage in the radial
direction. In the longitudinal direction, shrinkage is very low.

So, this is the amount of shrinkage as a function of moisture content and as we are seasoning or
the wood is drying the moisture content is dropping and the wood experiences shrinkage or an
increase in shrinkage as the moisture content drops. And what we see is that in the longitudinal
direction along the grains along the fibres shrinkage is very low but in the other directions you
can have significant shrinkage and this should be kept into account when we are looking at the
dimensions.

Also, to reiterate it is very important to seal the wood and protect moisture from coming in once
you are using the wood in the structure because this can lead to swelling and distortion of the
structural element.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:35)

So, we have looked at a microstructure of wood. We have seen why there is a lot of variation and
anisotropy in wood. In the second part of this lecture, we will look more at the different
properties. We will look at typical values and we will look at applications of timber and we will
end up also talking about composites that can be made out of pieces of wood or particles of
wood. Thank you.
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