Abstract:
This study aims to investigate the effects of different forms of locks on the mechanical properties of wood flooring, in which the lock plays a key role to the connection. The laminate flooring lock structure was investigated, and the static characteristics of finite element model of the lock structure was taken as the research objective. By means of 3D scanner, the 3D point cloud data of 12 kinds of typical lock structures including embedded lock and body lock were acquired. The 3D solid model of lock structure was reversely reconstructed, and the characteristics of lock structure were analyzed to determine the structure eigenvalues affecting the mechanical properties of the lock. The finite element software ANSYS was used to analyze the finite element models of the total deformation, the equivalent stress, the equivalent strain under bending or tensile loads, and to study the static characteristics of the wood flooring lock. The results showed that the mechanical properties of the lock were most affected by locking junction length, the tenon/groove (convex/concave) length and joint surface shape. The embedded lock performed better overall properties than the body lock, as it was less affected by the shape of the lock but most affected by the shape of the locking element. In a body lock structure, the shape of a large arc lock section is beneficial to the improve the mechanical properties. The study provides a new approach to design, optimize and test the flooring lock.