Effects of temperature-induced strain on creep behavior of wood–plastic composites

To investigate the effect of fluctuating temperatures on the creep strain of wood–plastic composites, a full-scale, long-term creep test was conducted in an unconditioned environment. However, the effect of elevating temperature caused unexpected additional increases in strain. In this study, the previously developed stress–temperature incorporated creep model and the proposed temperature-induced strain superposition method were employed in combination. The temperature-induced additional strain was successfully simulated, indicating that the creep test under an ambient environment could successfully simulate long-term creep with increasing temperatures. This approach and the concept can be applied to comparable future studies.