Elasto-plastic constitutive law for wood behaviour under compressive loadings

In this paper, a constitutive law describing the wood behaviour, as elasto-plastic orthotropic material with 3D finite element model, is presented. Anisotropic elasto-plastic constitutive law with hardening associated with material densification, without distinction between radial and tangential properties, was used for the compressive behaviour. The main novelty of the developed 3D F.E. model, among the models accounting for hardening is the coupling between the anisotropic plasticity and the ductile densification. The model was successfully implemented in the commercial ABAQUS software and validated in the context of uniaxial compressive loading and on one-bolt wood connection tests. The results for the uniaxial compressive loading were compared with the published experimental ones, showing good agreements and demonstrate clearly the effect of the densification on the plastic behaviour. Further, the results obtained on one-dowel wood connection were compared with experiments showing the capability of the model to simulate accurately the non-linear behaviour of bolted joints until failure.