Effect of microfibril angle on the longitudinal tensile creep behavior of wood

In this report, we undertook studies of the viscoelastic properties of wood from the viewpoint of the fine structure and properties of the constituent materials in the wood cell wall. To measure the mechanical properties of the wood as the behavior of the cell wall, it is required to perform the longitudinal tensile test using a homogeneous specimen. In this study, microtomed specimens of sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D.Don) earlywood were used for the creep test, which were conducted at the fiber saturation point. The substantial creep compliance of the cell wall was simulated using a simplified viscoelastic model consisting of a Voigt element and an independent spring in series. Based on the experimental results, the values of the parameters were optimized. The results were as follows: (1) the longitudinal tensile creep deformation tends to increase with the elapsed time, similar to the bending creep behavior; (2) the magnitude of the longitudinal creep function increases with MFA; and (3) each parameter in the simplified viscoelastic model is markedly affected by the MFA. Based on these results, the mechanism of the longitudinal tensile creep deformation of wood is discussed.