Strength property of polymer - wood composite

Wood is one of the oldest construction materials. Nowadays, in the shipbuilding industry wood is almost forgotten. Wood has a lot of advantages in comparison to other materials, e.g. steel. However, some of wood characteristics are inconvenient. Layers are integrated part of wood construction - it is a natural composite. It is a big advantage of the wood, but there is too big difference between soft and hard wood's layer. Modified wood might be very interesting “new” material for marine industry. Especially, polymer-wood composite seems to be very promising. One of the authors developed surface saturation methodology of the wood by polymer. Several measurement tests were performed. Some of the new material characteristics have been specify as a results of the tests. Stiffness and averaged material constants have been determined as well as material data of separate composite layers. The experiments were simulated by numerical calculations. Numerical analysis was compared with measurements. After model verification, several other analyses (e.g. detailed stress distribution in the composite) were performed. That kind of analysis of material data where very difficult, or even impossible, for obtain by measurements. Numerical analysis was performed by Patran-Nastran commercial software based on Finite Element Method. The authors plan to use experimental and calculations data for more specified analysis (included dynamic analysis) and plan to improve that polymer-wood composite can be used in marine industry with benefits.