Study on the Fracture Toughness of Wood Grown in Korea(I) - Mode I Fracture Thoughness -

국산재(國産材)의 파괴인성(破壞靭性)에 관한 연구(硏究)(I) - 모-드 I 파괴시(破壞時)의 파괴인성(破壞靭性) -

The fracture toughness of two species, Pinus rigida MILL and Pinus koraiensis S. et Z. grown in Korea, was investigated by means of single edge notch beam specimen for the six principal systems of crack propagation in wood. The values of the fracture toughness for the LR and the LT systems ($K_{IC}$LR and $K_{IC}$LT) were found to be similar to each other and about 8 times greater than those for the other systems ($K_{IC}$RL, $K_{IC}$TL and $K_{IC}$TR) in both species. The results indicate that the characteristics of fracture toughness in three principal directions of wood (L, R, T direction) are quite different from those of bending strength for the responsible direction. To predict $K_{IC}$ value based on the variation of specific gravity, the experimental values of $K_{IC}$LT and $K_{IC}$TL were compared to the predicted values by published relationship between $K_{IC}$ and specific gravity. However, there were 10 to 25% differences between the former and the latter.