An overview of the state of fatigue research for wood and wood products is presented. The extreme lack of a satisfactory data base and the persistent neglect of fatigue characteristics in wood material design is emphasized. Some theoretical considerations are presented to point out the difficulties met when attempting to model the behavior of wood products exposed to cyclic loading phenomena.A major conclusion of the work is the need for the entire materials science community to consider wood as a valuable and rewarding material upon which to focus research efforts. As wood is the world's primary renewable structural resource, a concerted effort must be made to understand its fatigue performance and the degree of accuracy in predicting life expectancy.
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