COMPOSITE PRODUCTS RUPTURE UNDER LONG-

TERM LOADS: A TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

In: Proceedings, 22d International particleboard/composite materials
symposium; 1988 March 22-24; Pullman, WA. Pullman, WA: Washington
State University; 1988: 247-256.

THEODORE L. LAUFENBERG
U.S. Forest Products Laboratory
Madison, WI

ABSTRACT structural particleboards, flakeboards, and

Information on wood-based structural
composite panels performance under long-term
loads is currently needed to permit their use in
engineered assemblies and systems. A broad
assessment of these time-dependent properties
is critical for creating databases and models of
the creep-rupture phenomenon which permit
application of reliability-based design
procedures. This paper provides a background
of information on the creep-rupture phenomena
by describing the microscopic mechanisms
presumed to control the process, the history of
the treatment of creep-rupture in design of
wood structures, the models commonly used
to describe the creep-rupture time-to-failure
behavior, and an overview of the literature for
plywood. Some common baselines are offered
which promote some consistency in the testing
and analysis of creep-rupture for composite
products. The closing of this overview paper
is dedicated to assessment of the research needs
for this subject area.
INTRODUCTION
One of the better-known design aspects
of solid wood products in that wood strength is
dependent on its time under load (Wood, 1947).
Many scientists have studied this problem
phenomena and have introduced many diverse
methods of modeling it. Another aspect of this

247
load-duration effect is the time-dependent
deformation caused by loads on structural
members which is commonly called creep.
Throughout this paper. the term “creep-rupture”
will he used to describe the combined
phenomena of increasing deformation and loss
of strength with time.
Composite wood products have similar
characteristics as solid wood products in regard
to the creep-rupture phenomena. However.
being relatively new to structural uses, a long-
term performance history based on common
building practices has not been established for
these products. Moreover, their rheological
properties present the creep phenomenon as
the more common concern than that of rupture,
as is true for solid wood products.
Composite wood products produced from
veneers, flakes, wafers, and particles are
becoming accepted in structural systems that
may have traditionally employed solid wood
or steel materials. A reason for this diversity
in product application is that these composites
can be produced with a wide range of structural
properties. Manufacturers can control the
production process and thus, the materials’
short-term strength and stiffness and the
variability of these properties.
All wood-based products are susceptible
to the creep-rupture effects noted previously.
Thus, in-service stiffnesses must be known
and controlled to limit the component’s creep
deformation and the possibility of rupture in
its intended service life. The relative lack of
information on creep-rupture in composite
materials hinders development of empirical
design guidelines, but also precludes
development of a reliability-based assessment.
The writer’s view of a reliability-based design
approach has a format which sets deflection
limitations that will address serviceability
(deflection. in this care) concerns and time-to-
failure load simultaneously. This approach
will provide the emphasis to assess deflection
as the controlling influence in design of
traditional panel products (O’Halloran et al.,
1988).
In this paper, a background on the creep-
rupture phenomena for composite materials
will be provided. First, will be the description
248
of the macro-mechanical behavior and the
responsible micro-structural mechanisms for
creep-rupture. From there, an overview will
then be presented of the history of the design
factors used to account for creep-rupture in the
wood industry and past research work on creep-
rupture time-to-failure for composite products.
This will be followed by suggestions for
standardizing the tests and data generated by
these time-comsuming experimental programs.
The paper closes with an assessment of research
needs for addressing the creep-rupture problem
in light of the continued growth and structural
expectations for these composite wood
products.
WHAT IS CREEP-RUPTURE?
The phenomena of creep-rupture has some
very humble beginnings and should be viewed
in this way prior to any analytical assessment.
From a simplistic standpoint. one sees a
material under a constant load with its
deformation increasing over time. This is
commonly called creep and was the subject of
a presentation last year in the Proceedings
(1987). As this deformation increases, it will
at some point be seen as a “failure.” This may
take the form of a massive crack in a beam
member, a buckled truss component, or simply
a floor panel that has an excessive deflection.
This failure or rupture under long-term loads
is the subject of this paper.
Since it was the writer who introduced the
combined phenomena of duration of load and
creep which he’s called creep-rupture, it will
be illustrated why it is correct to combine
them and view this as a continuous process.
There are three basic stages in the creep-rupture
process: primary, secondary, and tertiary creep
as distinguished by the decreasing, constant,
and increasing rates of deformation (Figure 1).
These stages occur in many materials including
wood-based composites (Nielsen, 1972).
Some obvious implications from this
simple presentation are that: (a) the primary
creep is a short transition between the elastic
[or initial] deformation caused by the load and
the steady-state condition represented by the
secondary phase, (b) the secondary creep is of
widely varying time length and at low loads
 Figure 1. --Idealized deformation (∂) versus time curves
for three stress (τ) levels in a material. Only the τ − τ3
curve shows all three stages of the creep process which
ends with an excessive deformation. Deformation is
represented with two components, elastic (∂o) and creep
(∂o )

could be infinite [or nearly so], and (c) the
tertiary phase of creep is short-lived and
represents the onset of massive fracture of the
material.
To justify this view of creep-rupture as
a continuous phenomena, an insight is needed
into the microscopic structure. For most wood-
based composites, the stresses carried within
the material are dependent on such local factors
as fiber orientation, density, adhesives type
and content, etc. Due to the construction of
these composites, some constituents are
carrying larger stresses than others. These
highly stressed fibers are the first to unload
through such mechanisms as disbonding, fiber
failure, and fiber rotation. These micro-failures
cause infinitesimal increases in overall material
deformation and cause the remaining fibers to
be more highly stressed. In addition to these
micro-failures, it is expected that wood fibers
and adhesive bonds under stress will exhibit
micro-creep. These continuously increasing
deformations represent a stress relaxation of
some wood fibers and adhesive bonds that are
redistributed within the microstructure. This
process of micro-failures and micro-creep
followed by stress redistribution is presumed
to be occurring at the general rates indicated
by the three creep phases indicated earlier.
Clearly, there are differing mechanisms for
these microscopic processes, but the scenario,
as presented, stays basically the same.
Also, there are environmental conditions
which confound the creep-rupture process. In
simple terms, the changing of temperatures
and moisture contents cause the deformation
rate to increase as well. That rate is dependent
on the material itself, the load level, material
volume, and the rate of environmental change.
Each of these factors results in a gradient of
structural properties which change the
deformation and failure characteristics of the
material under load. Considering the
complexity of the environmental stresses placed
on composite products in-service, this may
well be the most difficult effect to quantify.

249
 HISTORY OF DESIGN FACTORS
FOR CREEP-RUPTURE
A s e a r l y a s about 1840, Haupt
recognized that long-term loads affect the
bending strength of wood (Thurston, 1881).
With additional experimental evidence from
Tiemann (1909), a “duration of load” factor
evolved to assure that design loads stayed below
the elastic limit. This factor, 9/16, was
recognized as the ratio of the elastic limit to
the modulus of rupture for wood (ASTM, 1915)
for “longtime loading.” No clear definition
was given for long-time loading until Combs
(1939) extrapolated existing data to give 10
years as a value for “normal loading” as it is
known today.
Figure 2.--Time-to-failure data for clear Douglas fir under constant loads as presented
by Wood (1947)
250
During the 1940s, a comprehensive study
was undertaken by Wood (1947) of the effect
on sustained bending loads on strength of clear
wood specimens. The results of that wood
(Figure 2) indicated that if the S-minute
duration corresponded to 100% of the standard
test strength, then the 9/16 factor (56%) was
achieved at 27 years. Further analysis of the
data (Wood, 1951) provided a curve that fit
Wood’s rapid (ramp) loading as well as long-
time (constant) load failures in this hyperbolic
form:
where S = percentage of 5 minute test strength
D = duration to failure in seconds
 The adoption of load duration factors
based on “normal” loading first appeared in
the National Design Specification (NDS) in
1948. After several years of experience and
readjustment, the 1952 NDS (National Forest
Products Association, 1986) fully embraced
Wood’s hyperbolic curve and retained its use
to the present time (Figure 3). This hyperbolic
equation, often called the Madison or Wood
curve, is used for adjusting all design stresses,
all grades and species of solid wood, and all
composite structural components and materials
that have assigned design stresses.
The history behind the design adjustment
used for calculating deflection caused by long-
term dead loads is not as well documented as
the strength adjustment. Traditionally, the
deflection caused by long-term loads on a
flexural member have been doubled when
checking the design’s deflection criteria. This
doubling of long-term load deflection is
recommended for use of unseasoned lumber,
but deflection need only be increased by 50%
for use of seasoned material (National Forest
Products Association, 1986).
Figure 3 .--Duration of load stress adjustment curve as adopted in the 1952 National
Design Specification (NDS) (National Forest Products Association, 1986)
251
CREEP-RUPTURE TIME-TO-
FAILURE MODELING
Creep rupture is a continuous deformation
phenomenon which may end in catastrophic
failure of the material under stress. Past
experience has provided two basic behaviors
to model: deformation and time-to-failure.
Models employed to characterize either the
deformation or the time-to-failure are intended
to provide a mathematical description of the
behavior for a given environmental condition
and a range of loading conditions so that the
long-term behavior of a material may be
predicted in a variety of structural applications.
The writer reviewed the models used to
describe creep deformation in the previously
mentioned Proceedings (Laufenberg, 1987)
and thus, will only review the time-to-failure
models here.
The time-to-failure models that have
been applied traditionally to composite wood
products are of the exponential form
S = A + B log10t
 where
S = percentage of “static” strength
A, B = constants
t = time-to-failure
Of course, normally this form is applied
to data collected under constant steady-state
stress and environmental conditions. Of
growing interest is the use of more sophisticated
models which are termed damage accumulation
models (Schaffer, 1973; Foschi and Barrett,
1982; Gerhards and Link, 1983). These models
predict rate of damage (dα/dt) and assume
failure when damage reaches a given value.
The models are summarized as shown:
(Schaffer, 1973)
(Gerhards and Link, 1983)
(Foschi and Barrett, 1982)
where
a(t) is the damage at time t (when α = 1,
failure is assumed)
a, b are constants
c, λ are lognormally distributed random
variables
τs, is short-term strength
τ(t) is stress applied at time t
σ is a threshold stress below which no
damage accumulates
density and adhesive type were not found to
It has been illustrated by Schaffer (1973)
and later by Caulfield (1985) how response
under constant load is linked to ramp load
behavior and simplifies to the traditional
exponential time-to-failure model.
Another promising approach is that
proposed by Nielsen (1985) which embodies a
fracture mechanics backbone where the rate of
crack growth is:
where b and τ are parameters from the
creep function, J(t):
J(t) = [1.0 + (t/τ) ] /E
b
with
E = Young’s modulus
σL = material strength without flaws
σcr = infinite rate of loading strength
1/b
q = (b + 1 )(b + 2)/2)
K(t) = dimensionless crack length ratio
Parameters for these advanced models are
difficult to generate and in some cases may
have little or no means of assessing confidence
in the estimates (Link et al., 1988). Thus, their
usage in reliability-based design formats may
be limited. Yet to be developed, however, is
the model which can link the deformation and
failure process.
TIME-TO-FAILURE: A REVIEW OF
THE LITERATURE FOR WOOD
COMPOSITES
One of the earliest studies to encompass
the emerging product known as structural
particleboard was that by Bryan (1960). Scope
of the testing was limited to assessing the time-
to-failure for two particleboard densities and
two adhesive types. Stress levels of 65, 70, 75,
80, and 85% of the average bending strength
were chosen for the long-term loading. Board
influence the stress/time-to-failure relationship.
Similarly, Kufner (1970) tested bending
specimens of eight types of particleboard at
several different constant stress levels.
Moisture contents were reported between 10
and 12%. Tests were completed on specimens
parallel and perpendicular to the panel length.
McNatt (1975, 1978) conducted an
extensive test program on the creep-rupture
behavior of several commercially-produced
particleboards. The program included rate-of-
loading tests in tension, bending, interlaminar
shear, and edgewise shear. Tension tests and
interlaminar shear tests were conducted for
constant load time-to-failure. Rate of loading
results showed that bending, tension, and shear
strengths decreased 6-11% for each ten-fold
increase in time to maximum load. McNatt
(1985) also tested a variety of laboratory
flakeboards in a limited study of rate-of-loading
effects in bending and tension and constant
load behavior in tension.
The only published work on time-to-
failure which encompassess oriented strand
board (OSB) and softwood plywood is that by
Hoyle and Adams (1975). Long-term bending
tests were completed at 12% moisture content
on solid wood. OSB, and plywood at 82%,
71%, and 66% of static strength for selected
periods of loading. Residual strength of
surviving specimens were determined to
provide additional confidence in the stress time-
to-failure data.
Lundgren (1957) presented data on the
time-to-failure and strain-at-failure for
tempered hardboards, particleboards, and
common fiberboards stressed in tension.
Regardless of applied stress and duration of
load applied to tempered hardboards, the strain-
at-failure was found to be fairly constant at
approximately 0.9% elongation.
In a broad program of study on strength
loss of hardboards over time, McNatt (1970)
evaluated six commercial 1/4 in. thick
hardboards with rate-of-loading and constant
load tests. All major modes of loading were
assessed using the rate-of-loading test while
only tension tests were completed for the
constant load time-to-failure. Strength losses
of 8% for each ten-fold increase in time-to-
failure were noted for different rates of loading
and constant load levels.
Similarly, constant load bending tests on
eight commercial brands of 1/4 in. tempered
hardboards were reported by Chan (1971). A
total of forty tests were completed for each
brand and five constant stress levels (30, 40,
50, 60, and 70% of static) were used.
The results of these constant load time-to-
failure tests (Table 1), using the exponential
253
model described earlier. have been
summarized. The summary illustrates the
range of results found in the literature.
However, the work of these researchers in
identifying time-to-failure relationships can’t
be compared directly. With variable materials,
geometrics, loadings, environments, and
analysis methods, the best that can be gleaned
from the sundry results is an insight for the
sensitivity of time-to-failure to the many
variables.
A COMMON BASELINE FOR CREEP-
RUPTURE EXPERIMENTS
Quite obviously, these long-term tests
represent a significant technical investment.
However, the results of these programs could
be better utilized if they were conducted
according to the same baseline set of
procedures, a protocol, for determining time
dependent strength properties. The writer
proposes that the creep test standard presented
at the last Symposium (Laufenberg, 1987)
provides a backbone upon which time-to-failure
tests may be completed. However, some
additional suggestions need to be made in
regards to sampling sizes. load levels, and data
presentation.
Compared to creep test sampling, the time-
to-failure sample sizes need to be quite large
to produce usable results. Twenty-five
specimens at each of three load levels are
recommended as minimum samples. Materials
with high variability may need to be assessed
with significantly larger samples to provide
additional confidence in the test results.
Load levels to be applied to the specimen
groups need to be assessed in such a way that
median failure times cover the widest range of
time permissible. The highest load level should
be chosen to produce median time-to-failure
of less than two days while the lowest load
level expected to produce failures should
provide the longest time that the researcher
can allow. The baseline for strength of the
material should be established using a load-
controlled ramp test with a target time-to-failure
of one minute. This ramp test is crucial in
establishing a common baseline for all products
and modeling them in a common data pool.
 Table 1 .--Summary of creep-rupture data in the form of exponential models of this form,
S = A + B log10D
Property
Tensile strength—McNatt (1985)
Tensile strength—McNatt (1975)
Tensile strength—McNatt (1970)
Tensile strength—Lundgren (1957)
Interlaminar shear—McNatt (1978)
Bending strength—Wood (1947)
Bending strength—Hoyle/Adams (1975)
Bending strength—Ghan (1971)
Bending strength—Kufner (1970)
Bending strength—Bryan (1960)
*S in percent and D in hours
Aside from the environmental conditions
and measurements cited in the proposed creep
test standard, the only additional data needed
is the time the specimen is under load prior to
failure. This data should be presented in tabular
form and, if any modeling is done. the
exponential form should be presented along
with any other models fitted to the data.
RESEARCH FOR THE PRESENT
AND FUTURE NEEDS
One very clear need in the creep-rupture
field for structural composites is for a consistent
baseline of data. Standardized test methods,
materials, and analysis techniques, as noted
earlier, are needed to formalize approaches to
the problem, yet provide adequate flexibility
to test creep-rupture hypotheses. A cooperative
research program has been established which
addresses these basic needs.
Under the guidance of a task group from
the National Forest Products Association
membership, a joint program on composite
panel creep-rupture has been established by
Forintek Canada Corporation and the U.S.
Forest Products Laboratory. The program is
being supported by both the Canadian Forest
Service and the United States Forest Service,
as well as the Waferboard Association and the
American Plywood Association. Although the
program is two years old, results of the joint
program are not expected to be published until
1989 (Laufenberg, 1986). Commercially
254
Material A B
Structural flakeboard 86.4 -7.9
Structural particleboard 84.8 -8.3
Hardboard 80.3 -7.8
Hardboard 83.2 -9.5
Structural particleboard 83.0 -8.1
Clear Douglas fir 90.4 -6.3
OSB and plywood 85.1 -7.6
Hardboard 78.2 -6.8
Structural particleboard 80.3 -7.9
Structural particleboard 83.4 -6.5
produced plywood, oriented strand board, and
waferboard of varying constructions are being
tested to identify the variables most influential
in their flexural creep and creep-rupture
performance. Environmental conditions will
be varied for creep tests, but held constant for
creep-rupture tests. The test program is
intended to provide a broad data base on the
rheological properties and duration-of-load
behavior of these structural panel products.
This database will then allow researchers to
formulate a test program to generate the data
necessary for development of design stresses.
Regrettably, a number of other needs will
remain for the research community. Greater
insight into the microscopic and chemical
processes responsible for creep are needed to
allow for the prediction and control of the
phenomenon. This is especially true for the
interaction of stress, moisture content, and
temperature. Understanding these micro-level
phenomena will probably allow for progress
on a global model of load and environment
history effect, as mentioned previously.
Researchers need to know why creep, and
thence, rupture, is accelerated in cyclic
environments and what micro-structural
elements are contributing. Only with this level
of knowledge will it be possible to effectively
design materials to resist creep effects.
Another rather straightforward need is for
the establishment of performance requirements
for structural systems and components to
provide designers with guidelines for deflection
limits under long-term loading conditions. As
discussed earlier in this paper, there is a need
for a creep-rupture model which can
incorporate loading and environmental histories
of structural members. Obviously, both the
performance requirements and the creep-
rupture model will be useful in reliability
analysis of wood structures.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
A number of basic concepts surrounding
the creep deformation and time-to-failure
phenomena are discussed both separately and
jointly with the term creep-rupture. The
continuous nature of the joint phenomenon is
discussed as a microscopic process which
ultimately produces microscopic failure. A
history of the development of design factors
for creep-rupture in solid wood products is
offered here as a background for the
development of design guidelines in composite
products. Creep-rupture time-to-failure models
are summarized as a prelude to presentation of
the literature on the subject of structural
composite panel time-to-failure.
The world literature is shown to be a
collection of research studies meant to solve
specific needs, but it is not possible to collect
them all in a single meaningful database.
Creep-rupture information is collected in such
a diverse manner that the writer could not
provide a definitive summation. However,
time-to-failure information from several
sources has been tabulated for this class of
products through use of the simple exponential
model. This section is closed by offering
suggestions for providing a common baseline
of experimental data with standards for testing
and data presentation.
Lastly, an overview of a large North
American test program is given which fulfills
a basic need for a broad database on structural
composites creep-rupture behavior. Several
other broad research needs are offered to this
audience as an open invitation for additional
creative research on creep-rupture for this
expanding family of products.
255
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