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Hauptverfasser: de Barros, Júlio O. Amando, Schwiedrzik, Jakob, Wittel, Falk K.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11177
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author de Barros, Júlio O. Amando
Schwiedrzik, Jakob
Wittel, Falk K.
author_facet de Barros, Júlio O. Amando
Schwiedrzik, Jakob
Wittel, Falk K.
contents Wood's increasing role as a structural resource in sustainable materials selection demands accurate characterization of its mechanical behavior. Its performance arises from a hierarchical structure, where the dominant load-bearing component is the S2 layer of tracheid cell walls-a thick, fiber-reinforced composite of cellulose microfibrils embedded in hemicelluloses and lignin. Due to the small dimensions and anisotropic nature of the S2 layer, mechanical testing presents significant challenges, particularly in producing homogeneous stress and strain fields. In this study, we apply micropillar compression (MPC) combined with digital image correlation (DIC) to Norway spruce tracheids, enabling direct and model-free strain measurements at the cell wall scale. Micropillars were oriented at different microfibril angles (MFAs), confirming the expected dependence of stiffness and yield stress on ultrastructural alignment, with higher stiffness and yield stress at low MFAs. For these under compression fibril-aligned kink bands occurred, while shear related failure was observed at higher angles. A parameter study on the acceleration voltage of the Scanning Electron Microscope revealed that electron beam exposure significantly degrades pillar integrity, which could explain data scatter and mechanical underestimation in earlier MPC studies. By controlling imaging protocols and using DIC-based strain measurements, we report the highest direct measurements of wood cell wall stiffness to date-up to 42 GPa for MFA=0°-closer matching micromechanical model predictions compared to previous results. Findings are compared with Finite Element Method-based displacement corrections to establish a robust protocol for probing soft, anisotropic biological composites' mechanical behavior while clarifying longstanding inconsistencies in reported results of wood MPC measurements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_11177
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resolving Discrepancies in Wood Micromechanics: Strain-Mapped Compression of Tracheid Wall Micropillars
de Barros, Júlio O. Amando
Schwiedrzik, Jakob
Wittel, Falk K.
Biological Physics
Materials Science
Wood's increasing role as a structural resource in sustainable materials selection demands accurate characterization of its mechanical behavior. Its performance arises from a hierarchical structure, where the dominant load-bearing component is the S2 layer of tracheid cell walls-a thick, fiber-reinforced composite of cellulose microfibrils embedded in hemicelluloses and lignin. Due to the small dimensions and anisotropic nature of the S2 layer, mechanical testing presents significant challenges, particularly in producing homogeneous stress and strain fields. In this study, we apply micropillar compression (MPC) combined with digital image correlation (DIC) to Norway spruce tracheids, enabling direct and model-free strain measurements at the cell wall scale. Micropillars were oriented at different microfibril angles (MFAs), confirming the expected dependence of stiffness and yield stress on ultrastructural alignment, with higher stiffness and yield stress at low MFAs. For these under compression fibril-aligned kink bands occurred, while shear related failure was observed at higher angles. A parameter study on the acceleration voltage of the Scanning Electron Microscope revealed that electron beam exposure significantly degrades pillar integrity, which could explain data scatter and mechanical underestimation in earlier MPC studies. By controlling imaging protocols and using DIC-based strain measurements, we report the highest direct measurements of wood cell wall stiffness to date-up to 42 GPa for MFA=0°-closer matching micromechanical model predictions compared to previous results. Findings are compared with Finite Element Method-based displacement corrections to establish a robust protocol for probing soft, anisotropic biological composites' mechanical behavior while clarifying longstanding inconsistencies in reported results of wood MPC measurements.
title Resolving Discrepancies in Wood Micromechanics: Strain-Mapped Compression of Tracheid Wall Micropillars
topic Biological Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11177