About

Colloqium Topics

The colloquium topics are related to the theoretical (design concepts, dimensioning, standardization, material modelling), numerical (nonlinear simulations, stochastic simulations), and experimental analysis in wood mechanics at different length scales:

• wood microscale (cell behaviour, fibers, pulp and paper)
• wood macroscale (solid wood, wood products, laminated members, joints)
• structural scale & applications (building constructions, construction details, historical applications,
  muscial instruments)

Objectives

Wood is one of the old­est ma­te­rials used by mank­ind. Nowadays, it is of signif­icance for a huge va­ri­ety of applications starting from large span glue lam beams and load carrying compo­nents in civ­il en­g­i­neering, up to for example mu­sic in­stru­ments as well as pressure, heat and mois­ture modi­fied ma­te­rial for new, innovative prod­ucts. Apart from the me­chan­ical and aes­thet­ical quality of the ma­te­rial, its eco-friendly fea­tures are of high signif­icance. Thus, it can be as­sumed that the importance will even grow in the fu­ture.
In order to be able to provide the desired, optimized components and to develop new applications, deep mechanical knowledge, theoretical modeling and numerical simulation approaches are required with respect to this complex material. Features to be identified are amongst others anisotropic elasticity, ductile plasticity, brittle fracture and time-, moisture- and temperature-dependency. Moreover, the material shows very pronounced features on different length scales so that it even could be described as a composite structure itself instead as a homogeneous material. The features depend on a large number of influence factors like growth conditions and yield a significant amount of scattering with respect to its properties. Due to this really large complexity and manifold dependencies, much research is required in order to be able to understand and to describe wood from the mechanical point of view. Even though science of forestry is a long established area of research, the mechanical analysis, modeling and simulation of wooden material is a relatively young field. In the recent past, quite some effort has been undertaken in order to widen the mechanical understanding of wooden material from different points of view. Currently, lively and advanced research activities are under way in order to develop a comprehensive knowledge.

The motivation of organizing this EUROMECH colloquium is to provide a dedicated forum for wood mechanics taking different methodologies into account and investigating at different length scales, either experimental or theoretical-numerical. Basic research as well as application oriented aspects from industry should contribute to the mechanical description of this unique material. The exchange of ideas, methodologies and results in wood mechanics shall be fostered.