Research Bulletin Board

Partnership of Bois et Forêts des Tropiques journal with IRG54

Partnership of Bois et Forêts des Tropiques journal with IRG54 in proposing a special issue linked with the special scientifique session at IRG54 "Tropical woods: Natural and conferred durability"

The latest issue of the journal "Bois et Forêts des Tropiques" is now online: https://revues.cirad.fr/index.php/BFT/issue/view/4185

There one can find the IRG54 advertissement at Page 97:: https://revues.cirad.fr/index.php/BFT/article/view/37029

This annoucement has also posted on the journal website: https://revues.cirad.fr/index.php/BFT/announcement/view/106

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Call for Joint Field Trial – Moisture Performance of Wood

Objectives
This initiative aims at the establishment of mathematical relationships between (1) measures from simple laboratory experiments representing different types of wood moisture uptake and release and (2) the time of wetness that those timbers experience during outdoor weathering at climatically different locations.

What your benefit will be
You’ll be part an international joint IRGWP collaborative research activity. You’ll get access to the full data set provided by the participants including those from laboratory tests performed at selected laboratories. The results of the trial shall be presented at IRG 54 in Cairns, Australia, and will get published as a joint IRG-paper with you as a co-author.

Costs involved
The costs for raw material and manufacturing of the specimens will be covered by the University of Goettingen. Costs for shipment of the wood specimens will be strongly dependent of the destination and need to be covered by the respective participant.

Call for participation
We strongly encourage your participation. The set-up of this global collaborative trial will be very simple, labour and material costs will be rather low, while the scientific impact of teaming up for this initiative will be significant.

Click on image above to view enlarged.

To read the complete description and for contact information to participate please click here.

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Project Aardvark

Call for In-ground Field Trial Data

IRG Durability Database

Background
Established in 2014, one of the many initiatives of the IRG-WP is an an open, web-based durability database. The overall aim of the IRG-WP durability database is the allocation of wood durability test results for comparative studies and reanalyses, serving as a data pool for service life prediction and modelling. In the context of reanalysis, remotely-sensed satellite site data has been combined with in-ground field trial data from the durability database to create the first iteration of an in-ground wood decay model.

Objective of data call
Since in-ground field trials are constantly being established and concluded at various IRG-WP partner institutions and universities, the hope is that such field trial data is also constantly submitted to the IRG-WP durability database. With additional submissions of data to the durability database, the developed in-ground wood decay model can be periodically updated and improved. The purpose of the model is to calculate decay rating for a given exposure period, for a given wood species at any location on the earth’s surface.
Therefore, Project Aardvark envisions the creation of a continually updating wood decay prediction model, based on an extensive wood decay database, in combination with site data from remotely-sensed sources. Data from both static and dynamic soil variables, e.g. soil depth and soil moisture content, have shown to be useful in the development of the model thus far.

Experimental set-up
Field trial data stemming from “graveyard” tests in accordance with recognised EN and/or AWPA standards are welcome. In-ground field trials established at new sites currently not listed as IRG-WP Global Field Test sites are also welcome. For a comprehensive overview of all the current IRG-WP field test sites, please refer to the following map: https://irg-wp.com/field-test-sites-global.html

Material preferences
Principally, all wooden test material is welcome! However, it is less important to submit the results of wooden test material treated using early-stage experimental preservation and/or modification systems. More important is untreated wooden test material, or material treated with established, commercially available preservation and/or modification systems of known retention levels.

Data requirements and submission
For more information on how to submit data to the IRG-WP durability database, please refer to: https://www.irg-wp.com/durability/index.html
Alternatively, please contact Brendan Marais, Philip van Niekerk, Marian Schönauer, or Christian Brischke at the University of Goettingen:
bmarais@uni-goettingen.de
philipbester.niekerk@uni-goettingen.de
marian.schoenauer@uni-goettingen.de
christian.brischke@uni-goettingen.de

Participants are invited to submit data towards a joint publication for IRG54 in 2023!

Click on image above to view enlarged.

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