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EVALUATION OF THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BALSA WOOD AND

COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Conference Paper · January 2019

DOI: 10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2019.COB2019-0095

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 25th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
October 20-25, 2019, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

COB-2019-0095
EVALUATION OF THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BALSA WOOD
AND COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Ayrton Cavallini Zotelle

João Henrique Sartori Vieira
Luciano Azeredo Merlo
Matheus Alves Lima
Antônio Carlos Barbosa Zancanella
Intituto Federal do Espírito Santo, Rod. BR 101 Norte, km 58, Litorâneo, São Mateus, Espírito Santo, Brazil.
ayrton.zotelle1@hotmail.com
joaohsv_@hotmail.com
lucianomerlo41@gmail.com
matheus_13.limma@hotmail.com
antonio_carlos1505@hotmail.com

Abstract. Balsa wood is a lightweight, tough material and is largely used in the manufacture of radio-controlled
aircrafts. By combining low specific mass and high mechanical strength, the material has been proven efficient in its
applications. Therefore, it is very common to manufacture composite materials from balsa wood to provide better
mechanical properties allied to the wood low specific mass. This paper evaluated the behavior of the mechanical
properties of wood as well as confectioned and realize mechanical tests of traction and bending in composites made
from a balsa core and coated with carbon fiber coated being varied the resin used during the manufacturing process.
The proprieties characterization of the wood and composites shows that, the process of laminating wood with carbon
fiber provides a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of the specimen. Moreover, the use of epoxy
resin proved favorable to the use of polyester resin, since the first provides a higher limit of traction resistance,
flexural resistance and a lower final density of the material.

Keywords: Composite materials, carbon fiber, traction tests, bending tests.

1. INTRODUCTION

Balsa (Pyramid Ochroma) is a type of light wood, resistant and widely used mainly in the manufacture of radio-
controlled aircraft. By combining low specific mass and high mechanical strength, the material is shown to be efficient
in its applications. Therefore, since the woods are generally considered material Anisotropic, rupture plans occur in
preferential directions, a fact that requires caution associated to the orientation of their employment in a structure.
The use of advanced composites in structural parts of aircraft increases each year due to the excellent mechanical
properties that this material gives to the component being designed and for allowing flexibility in the design of complex
parts and with specific local properties (Rezende and Botelho, 2000).
Among the hybrid composites there is the sandwich type consisting of two thin layers of rigid blades of low
thickness with a larger core, composed of a material less dense and with less resistance. With this, a composite is
obtained with the resistance of its external blades, resistant to traction and compression, and with the characteristics of
its core with high resistance to bending and low weight (Gama, 2017).
When working with this type of material, it is expected to obtain an element that has greater rigidity when compared
to the materials used as core. The structure obtained in addition to being resistant most often also presents lightness,
which makes this type of material widely used in the aeronautical industry, civil construction and various areas of
engineering that need to align two or more properties.
According to Tita (2007), the structure created is a special type of laminate. External surfaces tend to withstand the
normal tensile, compression, or shear stresses that are associated with flexion. The interior named with nucleus, has the
function of keeping the faces apart and must present rigid enough in the direction perpendicular to them, so that the
crushing of them is avoided.
One of the most effective methods to evaluate the mechanical properties of a material is conducting mechanical tests
of traction, compression, bending, hardness, fatigue, among others. Through them it is possible to raise important data
that allow a quantitative evaluation when you want to evaluate and compare two or more types of materials.
A. C. Zotelle, J. H. S. Vieira, L. A. Merlo, M. A. Lima, A. C. B. Zancanella
Evaluation of the Mechanical Properties of Balsa Wood and Composite Materials

The present paper evaluate, by means of traction and bending tests, the mechanical properties of balsa wood and
compare them to the matrix of the same material as a carbon fiber laminated composite varying the types of resin
applied to lamination process.
According to Callister (2008), the traction test consists of submitting the material to an axial load that tends to
lengthen it until the rupture. Such assays allow to know how the materials react to traction efforts, which are the tensile
limits supported by the material under study, as well as the necessary load to the body's failure. The bending assay, in
turn, consists in the application of an increasing load at a given point, directed perpendicularly to the length of the
specimen. It is used to determine the properties of flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, deformation under bending,
etc.

2. METHODOLOGY

All the mechanical tests were performed in the universal testing machine in a fully computerized manner, so that, as
the specimens were stretched, it was generated through a software aggregate the machine, a database that allowed
further analysis through stress curves as a function of deformation. The velocity of the claw displacement used in all
assays was 2 mm/min.

2.1 Traction tests

Six balsa wood test specimens were manufactured based on the dimensions presented by ISO 13061:2014 standard.
Figure 1 illustrates the specimen with the respective quotas.

Figure 1. Specimen used on traction tests.

The same number of specimens (with the same dimensions of the balsa wood specimens) was used to test for each
composite material configuration. The test methodology was performed on the basis of ASTM D3039.
To obtain more precise and coherent deformation data, ignoring the uncertainties related to the slides or lack of
calibration resulting from the universal machine, an extensometer was used to the test body. This instrument was
directly connected to the software.
The software connected to the test machine provided the test data relating the force applied longitudinally to the
body of proof to the absolute deformation by this suffered. From this it was possible to trace the stress-strain charts of
the specimens with the help of Microsoft Excel. Based on the interpretation of the curves data, it was possible to
establish the mechanical properties that characterize the material.

2.2 Bending tests

The bending tests were performed based on ASTM C393-00, which presents the methodology, as well as the
necessary dimensions to the specimens, as illustrated on Figure 2.

Figure 2. Dimensions of the specimens used on bending tests.

 25th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
October 20-25, 2019, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

The test body was supported at the ends of the machine and the load was applied at the center of the unit. Figure 3
shows the performance of the traction and bending tests.

Figure 3. Realization of the traction and bending tests.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Results for the traction tests

The curves obtained from the traction tests are showed in this section. Computational resources were used that
allowed estimating important properties of the materials. The Fig. 4 illustrates the tension/deformation curve for the
balsa wood (BW) used in the tests. Fig. 5 shows the curves obtained for the traction tests of the composite of balsa
wood matrix coated with carbon fiber 200 (CF200) and epoxy resin (Ep). Similarly, Fig. 6 represents the curves
generated in the tests of the material made from the balsa coated with carbon fiber using polyester resin (Po).

4.00
3.50 SP01
3.00 SP02
SP03
Stress [ MPa ]

2.50 SP04
2.00 SP05

1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 4. Results from the traction tests of the balsa wood.

As shown in Fig. 4, the curves obtained in the traction tests do not follow a standard behavior of the stress as a
function of the deformation. Mechanical characteristics such as limit of tensile strength, Young’s modulus and tensile
strength vary for each test specimen evaluated. This characteristic can be justified by the anisotropy that the woods, in
general, present due to the arrangement of their fibers.
The results of traction tests obtained with balsa wood coated if carbon fiber 200 and epoxy resin stood out when
compared with the composite made with polyester resin, since practically all of the specimens of the former exceeded
an average voltage value of 30MPa, a fact that is not noticed in Fig. 6,this is due to the fact that epoxy resin has greater
uniformity when it is spread through the matrix and has better mechanical properties.
The tests performed with balsa wood coated with glass fiber 200 (GF200) and glass fiber 350 (GF350) using epoxy
resin are shown on Fig. 7 and Fig. 9, respectively, that the former achieves higher values of resistance, which was
 A. C. Zotelle, J. H. S. Vieira, L. A. Merlo, M. A. Lima, A. C. B. Zancanella
Evaluation of the Mechanical Properties of Balsa Wood and Composite Materials

expected because it is a matrix with higher amount of filaments per area, which in turn gives greater resistance to the
element. When dealing with the composites made by balsa wood coated with glass fiber 200 and glass fiber 350 using
polyester resin, Fig. 8 and Fig. 10, show that the same fact occurs confirming the previously reported hypothesis. When
comparing the results of the composites made by balsa wood coated with glass fiber using glass fiber and different
resins, shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, is possible to note that the epoxy resin composites obtains higher resistance values,
due to having better characteristics compared to the polyester resin. The results with the composites coated with flass
fiber 350, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, confirms that the epoxy resin meets better qualitative and quantitative characteristics,
being mechanical and handling characteristics.

70 70
SP01
60 SP02 60
50 SP03 50
S tress [ MPa ]

Stress [ MPa ]
CP04
40 CP05 40
30 30 SP01
SP02
20 20 SP03
10 10 SP04
SP05
0 0
0 0.00125 0.0025 0.00375 0.005 0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006
S train [ mm/mm ] Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 5. Results from the traction tests BW+CF200+Ep. Figure 6. Results from the traction tests BW+CF200+Po.

40 40
35 35
30 30
Stress [ MPa ]

Stress [ MPa ]

25 25
SP01 SP01
20 20
SP02 SP02
15 SP03 15
SP03
10 SP04 10 SP04
5 SP05 5 SP05
0 0
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0 0.002 0.004 0.006
Strain [ mm/mm ] Strain [ mm/mm ]
Figure 7. Results from the traction tests BW+GF200+Ep. Figure 8. Results from the traction tests BW+GF200+Po.

35 50
SP01
30 SP02
40
Stress [ MPa ]

25 SP03
Stress [ MPa ]

30 SP04
20 SP01 SP05
15 SP02 20
SP03
10
SP04 10
5 SP05
0 0
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0 0.002 0.004 0.006
Strain [ mm/mm ] Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 9. Results from the traction tests BW+GF330+Ep. Figure 10. Results from the traction tests BW+GF330+Po.

The results obtained with the mechanical tests were used to calculate an average rupture stress with the respective
standard deviation for each material evaluated, as show Fig. 11.
 25th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
October 20-25, 2019, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

60.00
standard deviation
50.00 average
8.69
Rupture Stress [ MPa ]
18.27
40.00
2.03
5.06 7.96
30.00
0.00
20.00 43.81
37.86
29.74 27.26 29.00
24.39
10.00
0.59
0.00 2.72

Figure 11. Rupture stress for the materials evaluated in the traction tests.

Figure 11 shows that, when compared to balsa wood tests, there are a significant increase in mechanical strength due
to the presence of the fiber and the resin, making the composite slight and resistant for the most diverse applications.
Among the composites tested, the one with the highest rupture stress is the composite made by a balsa wood core coated
with carbon fiber 200 using epoxy resin.
Like that performed for rupture stress, the average Young’s modulus with the respective standard deviation for each
material evaluated are presented in the Fig. 12. As observed, the composites confer an increase in Young's Modulus of
the material, which is directly related to the rigidity of the material to the mechanical stresses to which the
manufactured component may be subjected. The composite that presents the higher average of Young’s modulus is the
same that have the higher limit of rupture.
12.00
standard deviation
1.34 1.61
10.00 average
Youg's modulus [ GPa ]

8.00 1.02
1.02
0.74 2.00
6.00
9.77 9.41
4.00 7.50
7.09 6.50 6.19
2.00 1.37
1.11
0.00

Figure 12. Young’s Modulus for the materials evaluated in the traction tests.

3.2 Results for the bending tests

Fig. 13 to Fig. 20 presents the bending tests results for the materials evaluated. When compared to the traction tests,
can be observed a different behavior: all the tests presented a maximum stress point, which indicates a flexural strength
limit before their rupture.
 A. C. Zotelle, J. H. S. Vieira, L. A. Merlo, M. A. Lima, A. C. B. Zancanella
Evaluation of the Mechanical Properties of Balsa Wood and Composite Materials

50
SP01
45
SP02
40 SP03
35 SP04

Stress [ MPa ]
30 SP05
25 SP06
20
15
10
5
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 13. Results from the bending tests of the balsa wood.

Although the typical anisotropic behavior of balsa wood is still observed, bending tests performed with balsa wood
(Fig. 13) show a greater uniformity of the behavior of the tension-strain characteristic curves when compared to the
tensile tests, allowing a characterization more precise with regard to the mechanical properties typical of such efforts.
A larger sample variance in the behavior of strain-strain curves of the same material is observed in the tests
performed with the composites, as shown in Fig. 14 to Fig. 20. This fact can be explained by the non-uniformity in the
application of the resin, added to the anisotropic behavior of the matrix, triggers in fragile stress concentrating regions.

120 70
SP01
60 SP01
100 SP02
SP02
SP03 50 SP03
S tress [ MPa ]
Stress [ MPa ]

80 SP04 SP04
SP05 40
60 SP05
30
40
20
20 10
0 0
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035
Strain [ mm/mm ] S train [ mm/mm ]

Figure 14. Results from the bending tests BW+CF200+Ep. Figure 15. Results from the bending tests
BW+CF200+Po.

70 60
60 SP01
50
SP02
Stress [ MPa ]

50 SP03
Stress [ MPa ]

40
SP04
40 SP05 30 SP01
30 SP02
20 SP03
20 SP04
10
10 SP05
0
0 0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0.02 0.024 0.028
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0.02
Strain [ mm/mm ]
Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 16. Results from the bending tests Figure 17. Results from the bending tests BW+GV200+Po.
BW+GF200+Ep.
 25th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
October 20-25, 2019, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

80 70
70 SP01 60
60 SP02
50
Stress [ MPa ]

SP03

Stress [ MPa ]
50 SP04 SP01
40 SP02
40 SP05
30 SP03
30 SP04
20 20 SP05
10 10
0 0
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0.02 0.024 0.028
Strain [ mm/mm ] Strain [ mm/mm ]

Figure 19. Results from the bending tests Figure 20. Results from the bending tests BW+GF330+Po.
BW+GF330+Ep

The average results for flexural resistance and Young’s modulus obtained with the bending tests to balsa wood and
the manufactured composites, as the correspondent standard deviation, are presented on Fig 21 and Fig 22, respectively.

90.00 standard deviation

80.00
average
Flexural resistance[ MPa ]

70.00
26.62
60.00 7.09
10.60 16.58 19.02
50.00 11.17
40.00 5.00
30.00 57.66
53.92 49.25 46.24 44.49 47.65
20.00 38.50
10.00
0.00

Figure 21. Flexural resistance for the materials evaluated in the bending tests.

According to Fig. 21, the evaluated composite materials showed a slight increase in flexural strength when
compared to balsa wood. The composite that presented a higher resistance in this question, although it presented the
greater standard deviation among the others, was the balsa wood core coated with carbon fiber using epoxy resin.
A. C. Zotelle, J. H. S. Vieira, L. A. Merlo, M. A. Lima, A. C. B. Zancanella
Evaluation of the Mechanical Properties of Balsa Wood and Composite Materials

7.00
standard

Flexural youg's modulus [ GPa ]

6.00
deviation
1.94
5.00
1.44 1.42
4.00
0.66 0.74 0.43
3.00

2.00 4.43
0.16 3.64 3.43
2.94 2.72 3.01
1.00
1.18
0.00

Figure 22. Flexural Young’s modulus for the materials evaluated in the bending tests.

As with all mechanical properties evaluated, a significant increase in flexural Young's modulus was also observed,
as shown in Fig. 22 when compared to balsa wood tests, the compote make by balsa wood coated with carbon fiber
using epoxy resin as being the one with the highest value for the magnitude cited above.
It is noted that different results of Young’s modulus are obtained with the performance of the traction and bending
tests. This difference is directly associated with anisotropy of the balsa wood, presenting different properties depending
of the direction. The Young’s modulus showed lower calculated values in the bending tests caused by, during the test,
the specimen is subjected to combined traction and shear stresses.

4. CONCLUSION

With the realization of traction and bending tests in balsa wood and composite materials made from a balsa wood
and carbon fiber, being varied the resin used in the manufacture of the specimens, it is noticeable that, the wood when
laminated together with carbon fiber presents improvements in its mechanical properties. Moreover, when comparing
the two types of resins used in the present study, the use of epoxy resin ensures better mechanical properties to the
material when compared with polyester resin. In general, the use of epoxy provides greater resistance to traction and
flexion, presenting higher limit values of tensile strength, as well as a smaller specific mass that, in most applications,
are extremely desired parameters. However, the use of epoxy resin makes the material fragile, being less malleable or
deformable. The mechanical tests show that the composite manufactured by a balsa wood core coated with carbon fiber
200 using epoxy resin is the one that presents the highest traction and flexural resistance.

5. REFERENCES

ASTM C393-00. 2018. “Standard test method for flexural properties of sandwich constructions”.
Gama, D. P. N. 2017. “Análise das propriedades de tensão e flexão em compósitos sanduíche”. Dissertação de
mestrado, UFF.
Callister Jr, W. D. 2008. “Ciência e engenharia dos materiais: uma introdução”. 7. ed., tradução Sérgio Murilo Stamile
Soares. LTC, Rio de Janeiro.
Hibbeler, R. C. 2010. “Resistência dos materiais”. 7. ed. São Paulo: Pearson Prentice Hall.
ISO 13061. 2014. “Physical and mechanical properties of wood – test methods for small clear wood specimens:
Determination of moisture content for physical and mechanical tests”.
Souza, S. A. 1982. “Ensaios mecânicos de materiais metálicos - Fundamentos teóricos e práticos”. 5 ed. Editora
Blucher, São Paulo.
Rezende, M. C. 2000. “O uso de compósitos estruturais na indústria aeroespacial”. Polímeros: Ciência e Tecnologia,
Vol. 10, pp. 4-10.
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25th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering

October 20-25, 2019, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

Tita, V. 2007. “Projeto e Fabricação de Estruturas em Material Compósito Polimérico. Notas de aula. Universidade de
São Paulo,Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica”. p. 68.

6. RESPONSIBILITY NOTICE

The authors are the only responsible for the printed material included in this paper.