Your search resulted in 398 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.
Conclusions and Summary Report Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Highway Guard Rail Posts
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50297
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of treated wood and galvanized steel highway guard rail posts using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood guard rail posts are significant.
• Less Energy & Resource Use: ...
AquAeTer, Inc.
Conclusions and Summary Report Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Marine Pilings
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50298
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of treated wood, concrete, galvanized steel, and plastic marine piles using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood piles are significant.
• Less Energy & Resource Use: Tre...
AquAeTer, Inc.
Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Utility Poles
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50299
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of pentachlorophenol-treated wood, concrete, galvanized steel, and fiber-reinforced composite utility poles using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood poles are significant.
...
AquAeTer, Inc.
Estimation of service life of treated wood in ground contact based on early indicators
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20536
A well-known problem with field testing is that it takes a long time before meaningful and reliable results are achieved. Only when a trial has come to an end the so called average life for the samples in a group can be calculated and compared with other samples. The aim of the present study was to investigate if it is possible to get a reasonable and good estimation of the average life long befor...
M Hansson, J Jermer, P Larsson Brelid, N Terziev
Performance of recent and old Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) wood
2014 - IRG/WP 14-10816
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) hardwood is one of the most durable European wood species. In the present research, various aspects that could potentially influence the durability were elucidated, namely: presence of extractives, ring width, and weathering. Simultaneously, properties of wood, which was in outdoor use for 35 years, were elucidated as well. The results indicate that ring width and ...
M Humar, M Žlahtič, N Thaler
Assessment of Scots pine sapwood susceptibility to moulds by determination of fungi growth and ergosterol content in infested wood
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20540
The susceptibility of wood to filamentous fungi (mould) attack is determine mainly by laboratory methods with descriptive grading of fungal growth on the surface of the wood specimens. It is a lot of different grading scale of fungi growth, but determination of the size of fungi growth is many times not easy, not clear and often difficult. Although the filamentous fungi are not included to microor...
A Fojutowski, A Koziróg, A Kropacz
In-ground durability of wood-based products – Comparative assessment of graveyard field tests and terrestrial microcosms
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20538
Traditionally wood durability and the effectiveness of wood preservatives are determined in so-called graveyard tests (according to EN 252 or AWPA E7). For laboratory testing, terrestrial microcosms (TMC) can serve as an alternative. Both tests have been applied for different types of wood-based materials, preservative treated, modified and unmodified wood. However, the usability of laboratory res...
A Soetbeer, L Meyer, C Brischke, P Larsson-Brelid, J Jermer
Changes in mechanical and chemical properties of wood exposed outdoors
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20550
The aim of this study was to investigate differences in certain mechanical and chemical properties of three different wood species (common beach (Fagus sylvatica), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and copper-ethanolamine (CuE) impregnated Norway spruce (Picea abies)) that were exposed in use class 3 (CEN, 2006) for periods between 4 and 30 months. The results show, that changes in the investigated me...
N Thaler, C Brischke, D Žlindra, V Vek, M Humar
Critical parameters on moisture dynamics in relation to time of wetness as factor in service life prediction
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20555
The concept of natural durability or enhanced durability based on the presence of active ingredients having an impact on both fungi and insects is not the only parameter steering the material resistance. Complementary resistance to getting wet (wetting ability) and consequently the ease of drying afterwards will lead to a parameter related to the time a piece of wood will remain under such wet con...
J Van Acker, I De Windt, W Li, J Van den Bulcke
Cost effective extension of service life of bridge tie (sleepers) - Effectively applying borate during Boulton conditioning and treatment with copper naphthenate
2014 - IRG/WP 14-30637
Current longevity of creosote treated wooden bridge ties in the South Eastern US is about 15 to 25 years, which is well below of the average service life of 33-50 years of railroad ties. Such short service life increases costs associated with maintenance of railroads including bridge down time for tie replacement as well as the cost for the new ties themselves. Because of this, many railroads are...
J D Lloyd, T Chambers, J-W Kim
Acceptance levels of surface disfigurement - tolerance to defects of coated wood
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20564
Service life planning (PSL) has become an important issue in performance based building and substantial progress has been made in recent years. The role of predicting the aesthetical service life of wooden building components has been underestimated for quite long time but is recently attracting more and more notice. It is influenced by numerous factors such as discoloration, fading, flaking, crac...
C Brischke, P Kaudewitz
The combined effect of wetting ability and durability on field performance – verification of a new prediction approach
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20565
Comprehensive approaches to predict performance of wood products are requested by international standards and the first attempts have been made in the frame of European research projects. However, there is still an immanent need for a methodology to implement the durability and moisture performance of wood in a performance classification system. The aim of this study was therefore to establish an ...
C Brischke, G Alfredsen, P-O Flæte, M Humar, T Isaksson, L Meyer
Non-destructive monitoring of structure and moisture dynamics of plywood exposed outdoors to improve service life prediction and fit-for-purpose design
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20570
Plywood is an important construction material yet prone to water uptake, which can decrease strength and increase decay risk. To predict service life and improve fit-for-purpose design, it is crucial to understand the moisture behavior and structural changes of plywood. In this research, several plywood specimens were exposed outdoors for approximately one year. During this period, the moisture di...
W Li, J Van den Bulcke, I De Windt, M Dierick, J Van Acker
Performance of bio-based building materials – viewpoints from the first year of COST Action FP1303
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20572
Maintaining and expanding the market potential for bio-based building products in indoor and outdoor construction uses remains a key activity for industries in the forestry and biotechnological sector, particularly in Europe. Whilst there are ongoing activities within IRG for collecting and populating a database on performance on wood, the performance data for many other (i.e. non-wood) "environme...
D Jones
Indentation and pendulum hardness tests: two convenient assessment methods of the performance of exterior wood coatings
2015 - IRG/WP 15-40689
Developing formulations of exterior wood coatings with long service life is a big challenge. For many years in Europe the performances have been mainly evaluated through weathering tests (within the EN 927 series) followed by visual assessment (blistering, flaking, mould growth, chalking and cracking), colour and gloss measurements, and adhesion tests. Very recently the importance of the mechanica...
L Malassenet, L Podgorski, M Truskaller, G Grüll
A review of the analytical methods used in determining the decay resistance of heat treated wood
2015 - IRG/WP 15-40690
Heat treatment as a wood process is increasingly used because of its non-biocide behaviour and its low environmental impact. This sort of treatment is based on biopolymer chemical degradation by heat transfer. This process improves mainly the dimensional stability and the decay resistance of wood.
Wood becomes darker after this type of treatment and thus gives it an aesthetic appearance. These i...
K Candelier, M-F Thévenon, A Pétrissans, S Dumarçay, P Gérardin, M Pétrissans
How to Increase the Lifespan of Exterior Wood Coatings
2015 - IRG/WP 15-40700
In addition to aesthetic appeal, coatings are designed to protect the wood from weathering degradation in outdoor conditions. This paper gives an overview of the effects of main components of coating, coating properties, and wood treatments on coating performance. Understanding how different type of resins (alkyd, acrylic or polyurethane), amount of pigments, type of solvents (organic or water), a...
M Nejad
Environmental Fate of Micronized Copper
2015 - IRG/WP 15-50310
The environmental fate of wood preservatives is an important aspect to estimate the health and environmental impact. Although biocides from treated wood may be released into the soil, water or air, the latter pathway is frequently neglected in favour of leaching studies. Nonetheless, wood dust is well known to cause a variety of adverse health effects, in particular diseases to the respiratory tra...
C Civardi, L Schlagenhauf, J Benz, C Hirsch, J Van den Bulcke, M Schubert, J Van Acker, P Wick,
Foundation piles: analysis of beech wood decay in service life conditions
2016 - IRG/WP 16-10858
Wood piles foundation system was largely used over decades. Thus, numerous buildings over the world are based on this constructive system. In the context of reduction of CO2 emissions in the building field of constructions, substitution of concrete by wood as material for foundation piles seems to be a promising alternative. However, fluctuation of the water table level in soil may promote fungal ...
Q Kleindienst, A Besserer, M-L Antoine, C Perrin, J-F Bocquet, L Bléron
Identification of the key factors influencing development of the blue stain fungi
2016 - IRG/WP 16-10872
Service life of wood is more and more frequently affected by aesthetic requirements than functional ones. In order to elucidate various aspects of service life, model house with façade elements made of 22 materials was built on the field test site at Department of Wood Science and Technology in Ljubljana. Colour and fungal disfigurement is among other parameters monitored on this house. In parall...
D Kržišnik, B Lesar, N Thaler, M Humar
Global survey on durability variation – on the effect of the reference species
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20573
Climate change due to anthropogenic emissions is the largest environmental challenge of our time. Forest-based value chains play an important role in reducing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. Maximizing the use of wood to tackle climate change requires improved understanding of the service life of timber products. This information can best be obtained from field testing and while there i...
R Stirling, G Alfredsen, C Brischke, I De Windt, L P Francis, E Frühwald Hansson, M Humar, J Jermer, M Klamer, M Kutnik, P Laks, I Le Bayon, S Metsä-Kortelainen, L Meyer-Veltrup, P I Morris, J Norton, T Singh, J Van Acker, J Van den Bulcke, T M Venås, H Viitanen, A H H Wong
Transfer of microorganisms from wooden crates to foodstuffs: assessment of a transfer threshold
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20574
Wood is commonly used in contact with foodstuffs, for example for packaging fruits or vegetables. Most common species used are beech, pine, spruce and poplar. Wood is often considered as being less safe than plastic because it is less easy to clean whereas several studies have demonstrated that microorganisms cannot survive easily on wood (Milling et al., 2005; Revol-Junelles et al., 2005). Nation...
M Montibus, R Ismail, I Le Bayon, A Jasick, M Gabille, F Aviat, V Michel, M Federighi, M Kutnik
CCA Treated Wood, Will It Last 100 Years?
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20575
Copper, chrome and arsenate (CCA) treated wood has a very successful history of use in New Zealand, for at least 60 years. In many parts of the world, CCA has been used for timber treatment since the mid-1930s. In this report, data are presented on the performance of CCA treated pine stakes and poles. Results from ground contact durability tests at Scion and other overseas test performance data su...
T Singh, D Page
On the effect of climate and exposure conditions on durability indicators and their potential for service life prediction of wood-based products
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20576
In order to encourage increased use of wood, different user groups need to be better informed regarding the variation in performance between different wood materials and the effect of different use classes. It is also important to provide good empirical data on the service life of wood products as input to for example life cycle assessment studies. In the current study the effect of temperature an...
G Alfredsen, C Brischke, P-O Flæte, M Humar, L Meyer-Veltrup
Moisture induced risk and fungal development in various field test set-ups in and above ground
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20577
A high number of studies on the decay performance of wood in outdoor exposure have been conducted in the past. However, no testing methodology for wooden components exposed above ground reflecting the variety of different loads has been established so far. Many test protocols were modified in different ways throughout the years and results were often published in an encoded or incomplete way. This...
L Meyer-Veltrup, C Brischke