On the inverse identification of wood elastic properties using a DIC-based FEMU approach

This work aims to identify the linear elastic orthotropic material paramters of Pinus pinaster Ait. wood, using full-field measurements and an inverse identification strategy based on the finite element (FE) method updating technique.

Compression tests are carried out under uniaxial and quasi-static loading conditions on wood specimens oriented on the radial-tangential (RT) plane, with different grain orientations. Full-field displacements and strains are measured using digital image correlation (DIC), which are then used as a reference in the identification procedure. A FE model is implemented assuming plane stress conditions, where wood is modelled as an orthotropic homogeneous material. Based on the numerical results, a synthetic image reconstruction scheme is implemented to synthetically deform the reference experimental image, which is then processed by DIC and further compared to the experimental results.

The results for both approaches were similar when both specimen configurations were used in a single run. However, when using the DIC-based FEMU approach with the on-axis configuration, the identified modulus of elasticity in the tangential direction and shear modulus are closer to the reference values.

This approach ensures a fair comparison between both sets of data since the full-field strain maps are obtained through the same filter and therefore have the same strain formulation, spatial resolution and data filtering. Firstly, the identification is performed using a single configuration, either the on-axis or the off-axis specimen. Secondly, the identification is carried out by merging data from both on-axis and off-axis configurations.