Corrugated Wood Composite Panels For Structural Decking

Strong Axis Bending(direction of primary bendingor longitudinal direction)Weak Axis Bending(direction of corrugations ortransverse direction)Figure 1: Corrugated panelBackgroundIn the mid 1970s, Price and Kesler [Price and Kesler 1974] molded relativelyshallow small specimen corrugated panels (16”x18” trimmed size, 30-degree pitch with5.63” period, 45-degree pitch with 4.00” period and 45-degree pitch with 5.63” period)by placing a flat wood flake mat on a set of fixed corrugated platens. The thickness of allthese panels was ¼” and the total depth was 1¼”. The corrugated panels tested by Priceand Kesler did not exhibit good bending properties. Lower maximum stress and lowermodulus of elasticity were reported for these panels compared to the flat boards withsimilar thickness. The lower strength properties reported may have been due to bad flowproperties of the mat in the cross corrugation direction because the initial flat mat mustelongate to assume the shape of the corrugated platens. This suggested that the molding2