Furniture as a functional object must satisfy both artistic and scientific requirements. In particular, ergonomic factors are very important in furniture design in terms of human health and productivity. To make furniture designs at the ideal intersection of science and art, it is necessary to approach furniture design with a scientific systematic. Accordingly, this paper summarizes and analyzes the current state of biomechanics in ergonomic furniture design, covering an overview of the biomechanics utilized in different types of furniture design, biomechanical analysis, and testing methods. In the conclusion of the study, the literature analysis identifies the key topics and areas of future exploration regarding the use of biomechanics in ergonomic furniture design. The findings of the review indicate that (1) the primary studies on biomechanics used in furniture design concentrate on special furniture, such as wheelchairs and transportation vehicle seats, with minimal investigation performed on common furniture; (2) mechanical analysis, experimental testing, and computer-aided ergonomics represent the main techniques applied in furniture design biomechanics; (3) the reliability of biomechanics used in furniture design needs to be improved due to the lack of fundamental parameters of the muscles and skeleton of the human body; and (4) more attention should be paid to the use of biomechanics in the design of common furniture, such as household and office furniture, which affects people’s health and comfort. The scientific and rational application of biomechanics should be integrated into ergonomic furniture design to promote healthy living and enhance work efficiency.

Elastic constants of wood are fundamental parameters used in finite element analysis of wood structures. However, few studies and standards regulate the dimensions of sample used to measure elastic constants of wood. The size effect on mechanical properties (i.e., elastic constants and proportional limit stresses) of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) wood was studied with five different sizes samples. The data of experiments were inputted into a finite element model of self-designed chair and the loading capacity of chair was investigated by finite element method (FEM) and experiment. The results showed that nonlinear relationships were found between proportional limit stresses, cross-sectional area, and height of specimen by response surface method with R² greater than 0.72 in longitudinal, radial, and tangential directions. Elastic moduli and shear moduli increased with the height of specimen when cross-sectional area was kept constant, and decreased with an increased cross-sectional area of specimen, when the height was a constant, while the trends of Poisson’s ratio were not as expected. The comparisons between experiment and FEM suggested that the accuracy of FEM simulation increase with the raise of width-height ratio (≤1) of specimens used to determine the elastic constants. It is recommended to use small cubic wood specimen to determine the elastic mechanical properties used for finite element analysis of beech wood structures. Further research to find optimized wood specimen dimensions to get mechanical properties for FEM is quite necessary.

The effects of screw diameter, pilot hole, and material type on withdrawal load resistance (WLR) of screw driven in medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particleboard (PB) were investigated through using experimental and numerical methods. Meanwhile, the results of experimental tests and numerical analysis were compared with the empirical equations. The results showed that (1) the material type and the diameter of screw had significant effects on the WLR, but the pilot hole was not; (2) the equations proposed in Eurocode 5 had better performance in predicting WLRs of screw in both MDF and PB than the other equations; (3) density distributions of wood-based materials affected the mechanical behaviours of WLR of screw; (4) finite element model (FE-model) established could be used to simulate the WLR of screw in wood-based samples; (5) the complex FE-model considering threads of screw can reflect the stress distributions on threads in detail, which contributes to optimal design of threads geometry of screws. And the simplified FE-model without considering threads of screw had advantages in predicting the WLR with higher accuracy.

Mortise-and-tenon (M–T) joint is a traditional joint type commonly used in wood constructions and wood products. Bending moment capacity (BMC) is a critical criterion to evaluate the strength of the M–T joint. In order to design the M–T joint structure more rationally, many researchers have been devoted to studying on this topic. However, the factors influencing the BMC are too many to conduct comprehensive studies using experimental tests, especially for tenon size. In this study, the BMC and bending stiffness of the M–T joint were studied using a combination of finite element method (FEM) and response surface method to optimize the tenon size of the M–T joint. The results showed that (1) the proposed finite element model was capable of predicting BMC of M–T joints with the ratios of FEM to observed, ranging from 0.852 to 1.072; (2) the BMC and stiffness were significantly affected by tenon size, and tenon length had a more significant effect on BMC than tenon width, while the tenon width affected the bending stiffness more significantly; (3) the response surface model proposed to predict and optimize the BMC of the M–T joint relating to tenon length and tenon width was capable of providing an optimal solution; (4) it was recommended to make the ratio of tenon length to tenon width higher than 1 to get higher BMC of M–T joints. In conclusion, this study will contribute to reducing the cost of a huge amount of experimental tests by applying FEM and the response surface method to design M–T joint wood products.

The aim of this study is to build a new numerical model of a mortise-and-tenon joint based on the finite element method (FEM) considering glue line and friction coefficient to analyze the semi-rigid wood joint. Firstly, the friction coefficient, glue distributions and strengths of the mortise-and-tenon joint were determined by experimental methods. Secondly, these parameters were specified to a T-shaped mortise-and-tenon joint model to build a finite element model of joint by FEM. Finally, both withdrawal and bending load capacity of T-shaped specimens were investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The results showed that the testing methods used to determine the coefficient, distributions and strengths of the glued mortise-and-tenon joint were all effective enough to determine the mechanical properties of the wood mortise-and-tenon joint, and the finite element model of joint can be applied to analyze the semi-rigid mortise-and-tenon joint with consistency beyond 85%. These methods and finite element models will contribute to the analysis of wood products and wood constructions.

The fracture behaviors of four wood species commonly used in wood products were characterized when subjected to compact tension (CT) load in radial-longitudinal (RL) system crack propagation. Meanwhile, the failure modes of evaluated CT samples were compared and analyzed using the fractal dimension method. The results showed that wood species had a significant effect on fracture characteristic values, including maximum fracture load, critical stress intensity factor and fracture energy. These characteristic values changed in the same way, i.e., beech wood CT samples obtained the maximum characteristic values, followed by ash, okoume, and poplar in descending order. The fracture behaviors of all wood species evaluated can be described by combining linear and exponential fitting equations at the crack initial stage and evolution stage, respectively. Linear positive proportional relationships were observed between fracture characteristic values and fractal dimensions calculated using cracks in front and left views of CT samples. However, the relationships between fracture characteristic values and fractal dimensions calculated using fracture surfaces were negative. The fractal dimensions of cracks in front view of CT samples could be a better indicator used to predict critical stress intensity factor and fracture energy, which had greater correlation coefficients beyond 0.95.