Abstract Particleboard (PB) are wood-based composite with fine wood fibers bound together by a small amount of polymeric adhesive, widely used in furniture industry and civil engineering. PB plates can be painted, laminated or veneered, and have good dimensional stability and load bearing capacity when properly designed. However, the deformation and fracture of such elements create malfunctions of structures made of MDF. This paper presents experimental results obtained for mode I and mode II fracture toughness. The fracture toughness tests were performed on Single Edge Notched Bend (SENB) specimen for mode I, respectively on Compact Shear (CS) specimens for mode II loading. Digital Image Correlation is applied in order to measure the displacement field evolution near the crack.