The transverse elastic modulus of the native wood fibre wall

The mechanical properties of the wood fibre in its transverse direction are of great importance both in papermaking and in the refining of a mechanica l pulp but very little information has been obtained so far regarding the s tiffness of the fibre wall in this direction. This investigation deals with the development of a technique to determine the transverse elastic modulus of wood fibre walls cut out of the native wood structure. The technique is based on mechanical measurements in an environmental scanning electron mic roscope utilising image analysis i.e. electronic speckle photography. The v alues of the transverse elastic modulus obtained for earlywood and transiti on wood fibres of Picea abies were in the range of 700-3000 MPa.