Your search resulted in 193 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.
Modelling of moisture content in timber bridge details
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20613
The design of details is an important aspect in durability design of timber bridges. Details are often considered the weakest points in bridges due to their tendency to trap and accumulate moisture and thus facilitate decay. When designing maintenance plans and inspection intervals, it is important to know how design choices will come to influence the service life. Moreover, service life and wood ...
J Niklewski, C Brischke, E Frühwald Hansson, L Meyer-Veltrup
Comparative Durability of Timber Bridges in the USA
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20615
As engineers begin to utilize life-cycle-cost design approaches for timber bridges, there is a necessity for more reliable data about their durability and expected service life. This paper summarizes a comprehensive effort to assess the current condition of more than one hundred timber highway bridge superstructures throughout the United States. This national study was jointly administered by the ...
J P Wacker, B K Brashaw
Prediction of service life – does aesthetic matter?
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20618
Building structures should be designed in order to satisfy requirements regarding safety, serviceability, durability and aesthetics, assuring proper structure performance along the entire service life. For that reason it is essential to understand overall deterioration mechanism at levels of element, component, façade and entire building. This work focuses specifically on the façade aesthetical ...
A Sandak, J Sandak
Influence of Weathering on Moisture Performance of Wood
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20619
Water performance of wood is besides the inherent durability the most important factor that influences on the performance of wood in outdoor, above ground applications. Therefore it is of significant importance to optimize the methods that are able to predict the moisture behaviour of wood in outdoor applications. In order to elucidate this questions, samples were prepared of oak (Quercus), sweet ...
M Žlahtič-Zupanc, B Lesar, N Thaler, M Humar
Service Life Forecasting and Planning – Why, and Concepts to do it
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20625
The importance of the building and construction sector in society cannot be overestimated. It is globally the major industry sector, a main contributor to gross domestic products, a dominant employer, and the main consumer of material resources and energy. The environmental impact of constructing, running and demolishing the built environment is huge. The products of construction are normally long...
C Sjöström
In-service performance of treated plywood bridge decks in Australia
2017 - IRG/WP 17-40794
Engineered wood products have a long history of use in bridge construction in Australia. The first bridges incorporating chemically protected engineered wood components were installed in the 1850’s and some survive to this day. Preservative treated plywood bridge deck panels have been employed since the 1980’s as a replacement for the more traditional hardwood plank decks. This paper report...
M A Powell
Performance of Norway spruce bridge in North-West Spain after 12 years exposure
2017 - IRG/WP 17-40796
Across Europe is very common to find bridges build in sawn and glue-laminated wood. Most of these bridges used softwood wood species such as: fir, spruce, larch and pine.
In Spain wooden bridges, became more and more popular since nineties, when sawn and glue-laminated wood were utilized for building exterior wooden structures in overall Spain.
This material, sawn and glue-laminated wood, are ma...
D Lorenzo, J Fernández-Golfín, M Touza, M Guaita, A Lozano, J Benito
Uncertainty in life cycle assessment of preservative treated wood – copper and freshwater ecotoxicity
2017 - IRG/WP 17-50331
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for quantifying the environmental impacts of a product over the life cycle. In the last years, there have been a growing application of LCA in developments of environmental product declaration (EPD), which is utilised by professional procurement of materials for buildings. For legislative issues, LCA have also been used to assess application of creosote to t...
L G F Tellnes
Colour changes in unpainted wooden façades – Fifty Shades of Grey
2018 - IRG/WP 18-10903
In Norway the use of weathered unpainted, wooden façades has increased in popularity the last 20 years, both in single family houses as well as in multi-story and non-residential buildings. The benefit of using unpainted wood as façade material can be several: low maintenance costs, low environmental impact and low carbon footprint as well as contemporary and trendy aesthetic appearance.
The va...
K Zimmer, L R Gobakken, O Flindall, M Nygaard
Impact of sapwood portions on the durability of adjacent heartwood of Pinus sylvestris, Pseudotsuga menziesii and Quercus robur. Part 1: Laboratory studies
2018 - IRG/WP 18-10922
Sapwood is generally considered as non-durable and assigned to durability class DC 5 according to European standards independent from the wood species. It is commonly agreed that sapwood decays faster than adjacent heartwood, but it is controversially discussed whether sapwood serves as feeder material and thus accelerates onset and progress of decay in more durable heartwood or decays independent...
C Brischke, P Homann, A Gellerich
In-service performance of wood claddings and windows – a Norwegian survey
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20632
The overall aim of the study was to strengthen the empirical data on decay frequency and in-service performance of claddings and windows in Norway. Data from a survey of claddings and windows from 38 Norwegian houses is presented. The main findings for wooden claddings: 1) predominance of decay was detected in east facing claddings, while the largest decayed areas were located on south facing clad...
L Ross Gobakken, G Alfredsen
Simulation and visualization of aesthetic performance of bio-based building skin
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20633
Performance of 120 selected façade materials provided by over 30 industrial and academic partners is under evaluation. The experimental data, acquired during BIO4ever project duration are used for development of the numerical models simulating the material degradation in a function of time and exposure. The weather data calculated according to the ASHRAE 2013 database allows numerical simulation ...
J Sandak, A Sandak, P Grossi, M Petrillo
Transfer of research results on the performance of wood and wood-based composites in outdoor applications into praxis
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20634
Forest-based industries have the potential to become an engine for a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy in Danube region. To reach this goal FORESDA projects was proposed. Main aim of respective project is transforming the traditional forest-based areas into innovative, modern and sustainable manufacturing areas; develop innovation-friendly ecosystems aiming to significantly improving and reco...
B Lesar, J Gričar, D Kržišnik, M Humar
The impact of coatings on the service life of wood decking
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20635
The durability of wood decks depends on the nature of the environment in which they are exposed to, the dimensions and configuration of the components, the resistance of the wood to degrading factors in that environment, and the maintenance performed on the deck. The present work seeks to better understand the performance of selected wood decking systems when maintained and unmaintained. This expe...
R Stirling, D Wong
Depictions on Wood: Acceptation and Internalization of Wood, which is an intercultural interaction tool, as “A Valuable Object” (Wood is the Material of Endless Possibilities)
2018 - IRG/WP 18-40837
Wood is a renewable and natural organic material that has a larger range of uses with inclusion of so many different places with its easy processing, functionality, versatility, anatomical structure, chemical composition, physical properties, mechanical properties, aesthetic appearance, healthy and environmentally friendly aspects, and hence there is a growing interest in making better use of wood...
I Usta
Enhancing service life performance of oak decking and cladding using organosilicon treatments
2018 - IRG/WP 18-40838
The Life+ project SILEX, in full “Improving sustainability of construction materials using innovative Silicon based treatment” started in April 2013 and was finalized mid 2017. The aim of this project was to demonstrate that a new class of compounds can be used for wood treatment for an extended service life combined with enhanced new testing methodology. Ultimately, it was the intention to de...
J Van Acker, J Van den Bulcke, J-P Lecomte
Long service life or cascading? The environmental impact of maintenance of wood-based materials for building envelope and their recycling options
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50336
A major restraint in choosing bio-based materials (i.e. wood-based) for external use, is the lack of confidence that architects, designers and customers have toward these materials. In particular, the limit state of bio-based materials, which defines the frequency of maintenance operations, might be reached earlier for wood than for other materials (i.e. concrete). On the other hand, resource and ...
M Petrillo, J Sandak, P Grossi, A Kutnar, A
Conversion by insects – alternative method for wood waste up-cycling
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50337
Building industry is a major consumer of materials and waste generator in Europe. The bio-based building materials are considered as interesting alternative in modern building sector due to their low environmental impact. However, in order to increase confidence for bio-based materials application, they should present satisfying performance during service life allowing at the same time their casca...
A Sandak, J Sandak, M Kutnik, I Paulmier, C Brunet, M Petrillo, P Grossi
Declaring life cycle inventory of toxicity related emissions in environmental product declarations of preservative treated wood products
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50339
Life cycle assessment (LCA) including impacts on toxicity for preservative treated wood has been shown to have large uncertainties. With the growing demand for verified LCA in environmental product declarations (EPD), the need for reliable data is crucial for realistic assessment of wood products. Uncertainty is caused by several issues such as service life prediction, leaching rates and calculati...
L G F Tellnes, C Askham, P-O Flæte, M Klamer
Performance of wood decking after 5 years of exposure: verification of the combined effect of wetting ability and durability
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20647
Wood is one of the most important construction materials and its use in building applications has further expanded in recent decades. In order to enable even more extensive and reliable use of wood, factors affecting wood’s service life need to be understood. More recently, a new concept to characterize the durability of wood-based materials and to predict the service lives of wood was proposed,...
M Humar, D Krzisnik, B Lesar, C Brischke
Durability by design – a case study of the performance of wooden decks after 9.5 years of natural weathering
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20648
The service life expected for wood decking manufactured with poorly durable wood species, left untreated and exposed to severe environmental conditions such as high humidity and active biological agents, is usually assumed to be short (less than 10 years). The current classification of wood’s natural durability is based on EN standardised tests which do not fully reflect the real end-use conditi...
M Kutnik, M Montibus
Quantifying the effect of microclimatic parameters on the moisture-induced decay risk of wooden structures
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20649
Wood exposed outdoors is prone to fungal degradation. Besides its material-inherent resistance, numerous factors are impacting on its service life with both, climate and design having a major effect. In addition, topography, shading, wind barriers, and other local parameters have an effect on the microclimatic conditions at site and therefore need to be quantified for service life prediction of wo...
L Emmerich, C Brischke
Visual assessment of longitudinal wheel timbers and assessing the feasibility of extending wheel timber service life in the UK railway network
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20651
Timber has been a versatile building material for centuries and during the start of the Railway Age in the nineteenth century it was in considerable demand for use in the railway network, particularly bridge building. Timber is still in service and widely used throughout the UK railway network. The resilience and favourable strength to weight ratio and its relative ease of fabrication make it an...
J R Williams
Performance based specification of wood – Introducing project CLICKdesign
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20661
This paper introduces the new ForestValue research project CLICKdesign – delivering fingertip knowledge to enable service life performance specification of wood. This European consortium is working on the primary innovation to move from the complex, fragmented and general to the easy-to-use, consolidated and specific by provision of an accessible digital tool for specifiers. Competing materials ...
E Suttie, C Brischke, E Frühwald Hansson, S Fortino, J Sandak, M Kutnik, G Alfredsen, C Lucas, R Stirling
Service life planning of wooden structures: Mathematical prediction models versus professional experience
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20663
During the last 15 years, enormous efforts have been made in developing models for predicting the service life of wooden structures and components. Currently, a framework of how exposure, dimension, design details and the material-intrinsic and the ability to take up and release water can be linked to model the moisture risk in wood products is in principle available.
The aim of this study was to...
C Brischke, J Niklewski, M Humar, G Alfredsen