Engineered wood flooring design using the finite element method

The market share of engineered wood flooring (EWF) has grown rapidly over the last 15 years. These market shares have been mainly gained through the development of new wood flooring products, resulting in a need for knowledge on their behavior and performance. In order to support the design of new engineered wood construction, experimental and numerical modeling approaches were used in this work to demonstrate the suitability of the finite element method in the design process. The model used in this study was validated in previously published work. Geometrical parameters and wood species properties were used to assess different EWF constructions. It is shown that the thickness and mechanical properties of the core layer are the two most important design parameters controlling the cupping deformation of EWF in service. The backing layer appears to have a smaller, although still significant, impact on cupping (between 13% and 14% decrease of the cupping deformation). The results of this study demonstrate the potential of such models in the design process to reduce the development cost of EWF.

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