Bending test for capturing the vivid behavior of giant reeds, returned through a proper fractional visco-elastic model

This paper presents results of experimental investigations made to evaluate the vivid behavior of giant reed Arundo donax. In particular, attention was paid to the relationship between visco-elastic properties and moisture content, which is widely recognized as one of the key factor that influences the mechanical properties of all wood-based materials. To this aim, after a controlled drying treatment on samples of reed, stress relaxation tests in three point bending configuration were performed to evaluate the effects of moisture content on visco-elastic behavior of the giant reed. Further, the novel aspect of this paper is that of using an Euler-Bernoulli model embedded with an advanced visco-elastic constitutive law to fit experimental data of bending tests. Such a model of continuum beam takes into account different constitutive laws of viscoelasticity, being natural materials visco-elastic.