Measurement of standard and off-axis elastic moduli and Poisson’s ratios of spruce and yew wood in the transverse plane

It is well known that in the radial–tangential plane of softwoods, the elastic modulus in the principal directions is clearly higher than the off-axis elastic moduli, which decrease to a minimum at a growth ring angle α of about 45°. However, this angular dependency was experimentally proven by only a few early publications. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze this relationship with up-to-date equipment in compression tests on miniature softwood specimens with varying growth ring angles and (2) to compare the experimental results with those calculated by a tensor transformation to assess whether it is admissible to treat the investigated wood species as orthotropic materials. Two softwoods with distinctly different anatomic structures (Norway spruce and common yew) were chosen, and further properties such as Poisson’s ratios were determined. The results confirm the above-mentioned angle-dependent tendency for spruce elasticity, but also show that it is not valid for softwoods in general since the behavior of yew was completely different. The tissue textures of both species, particularly density and density distribution, were discussed as possible reason for these observed differences. The determined Poisson’s ratios for principal and off-axis load directions may be useful for modeling of material behavior.