Summary

The relationship between transverse Young's moduli and cell shapes in coniferous early wood was investigated using cell models constructed by two dimensional power spectrum analysis. The calculated values of tangential Young's modulus qualitatively explained the relationship between experimental values and density as well as the difference in experimental values among species. The calculated values of radial Young's modulus for the species having hexagonal cells agreed well with the experimental values, whereas, for the species having square cells, the calculated values were much larger than the experimental values. This result was ascribed to the fact that the bending moment on the radial cell wall of square cell models was calculated to be small. It is suggested that the asymmetrical shape of real wood cells or the behavior of nodes during ell deformation is an important factor in the mechanism of linear elastic deformation of wood cells.