The application of materials made from the raw material wood in the field of mechanical and plant engineering is not possible today without any problems. This is due to the fact that no validated parameters are available for the materials. Measurement methods used in the paper and wood industry to determine strength and stiffness are often not compatible with the requirements for use in safety-relevant or lightweight components. The basic reasons for this are different test speeds and the question of how to evaluate local and global deformations. Due to the inaccurate recording of the relevant parameters, it is currently not possible for design engineers to use the materials in their calculations, for example on the basis of the finite element method. A research project invol-ving nine research institutes has set the aim of giving wood and wood-based materials access to the sales markets of mechanical and plant engineering. This is to be achieved by improving the calculability of wood composites and wood hybrids in lightweight construction applications. For this purpose, the development and evaluation of a two-stage calculation concept, consisting of an ana-lytical-semiprobabilistic design and a subsequent simulation, was planned.

The project is divided into three main areas:

• Development and validation of a calculation concept for static, uniaxial loads

• Definition and determination of relevant material properties for solid wood, veneers, adhe-sives, fibrous materials and their composites, including the development and adaptation of suitable test methods.

• Validation of the determination of characteristic values.

The determined material properties are stored in a database and are then also available for calcu-lations, dimensioning and simulations in other application areas, in particular the construction in-dustry. So the use in the design and simulation of machine components made of wood and wood-based composites, but also in combination with other materials, is possible in the future.