Moisture and short-term time-dependent behavior of Norway spruce clear wood under compression perpendicular to the grain and rolling shear

Material properties of wood under compression perpendicular to the grain and rolling shear are important for the engineering design of timber structures. This regards the short-term stiffness and strength, their dependence on the moisture content of wood, as well as the time-dependent behavior. Norway spruce clear wood properties in the transverse plane of wood were studied inan experimental campaign exploiting an earlier developed biaxial test setup. The moisture dependence of the stiffness and strength and the short-term time-dependent creep deformations under compression in the radial direction and under rolling shear were characterized. Loading and unloading stiffness, as well as the strength, were determined in quasi-static tests at five different moisture contents from 4% to 29%. The elastic and viscous stiffnesses were identified in creep tests at three compressive stress levels of 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 N/mm2, and at two rolling shear stress levels of 0.33 and 0.50 N/mm2. The test data complements the existing experimental database, especially with novel data regarding the moisture dependence of the rolling shear strength, which showed less moisture dependence than the compressive strength perpendicular to the grain. The results of the creep tests revealed different material properties for the different loading and material directions of wood.