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Abstract

Bibolo (Lova trichilioides) wood is market locally under a commercial name of Dibetou and in what follows it shall be referred to as bibolo. Stress induced changes in intrinsic timescale were investigated by nonlinear short period (3 h) creep tests on bibolo at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, for streses ranging from 9.19 MPa to 27.56 Mpa. The creep strain and creep compliance curves versus time at four different stress levels were determined. The resultant creep compliance curves depart from each other, indicating nonlinear viscoelastic behaviour. The creep strain curves were shifted along the logarithmic time axis to get a master creep curve at a given reference stress level according to the principle of time-stress superposition. It is shown that the time-stress superposition principle provides an accelerated test method for evaluating the long-term mechanical performance this wood.