Compilation of hardness data obtained by nanoindentation in the S
2-layer of different types of cells from softwoods mainly shows that there is no obvious tendency between hardness and MFA (Wimmer et al.
1997; Gindl et al.
2004; Tze et al.
2007; Konnerth et al.
2009; Yin et al.
2011). Results are highly scattered in the range 0.35–0.55 GPa. Moreover, difference in hardness values between the cell corner middle lamella and the S
2 wall is neither significant (Wimmer and Lucas
1997; Jakes et al.
2008). The hardness increases with lignin content in developing cells (Gindl et al.
2002). In hardwoods, a similar order of magnitude has been reported (Stanzl-Tschegg et al.
2009) with no significant difference in hardness between 10 hardwood species with different MFA (Wu et al.
2009). Following the idea of Gindl and Schöberl (
2004) and Gindl et al. (
2004), hardness seems mainly dependant on the cell wall matrix properties. Later results on hygrothermally or chemically modified wood strengthen this assumption. Stanzl-Tschegg et al. (
2009) show that a strong thermal treatment (220 °C) weakly affects the reduced modulus, whereas it significantly increases hardness of a beech S
2-layer. Steam (hygrothermal) treatment leads to a significant reduction in hardness especially for temperatures higher than 140 °C (Yin et al.
2011). Yu et al. (
2011a) found that hardness is more sensitive than the reduced modulus with changes in moisture content. All these results show that the cell wall matrix behaviour, and its modification, is prevailing on hardness. This could be explained by the complex loading under the indenter with a strong plastic deformation that probably relies on microfibrils organisation and damage (by bending, buckling, kinking, etc.) and high strain in the matrix. Brandt et al. (
2010) measured hardness perpendicularly to the fibre axis, for example, in the radial and tangential direction of the S
2-layer, and obtained values around two times smaller than in the cross-section of the fibre. One can imagine that the indenter penetration in the cell wall, and interaction with the microfibrils network, is different for a radial or tangential loading. To the authors` best knowledge, no detailed modelling of the plastic deformation process of wood under the indenter tip has been done. In metals, a significant amount of work has been done in this direction (e.g. Tabor
1996); however, this relies on the detailed knowledge of the elementary processes of plastic deformation, which is missing for wood.