Your search resulted in 204 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.
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
Economic and Alternative Preservative Research with an Overview of its Impact on the Dynamics of Wood Tie Markets and Railroads
2019 - IRG/WP 19-30751
This presentation will discuss the Railway Tie Association’s (RTA) efforts in economic research for the North American wood tie industry, along with decades-long research into improving wood preservation processes and its resulting economic impact for railroads. Ongoing research is continuing to expand the knowledge-base by comparing existing standard creosote (C) and borate-creosote (B-C) dual...
J C Gauntt
2018 Railway Tie Survey and the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials Rulemaking Activities
2019 - IRG/WP 19-50352
This presentation will discuss a survey AAR recently completed on the management of used crossties in the North American rail industry. Approximately 23 million new wood ties are purchased and installed in the North American rail network every year. The presentation will show the number and percentage of ties which are managed by reused in track, reuse in commercial, agricultural or residential la...
R Fronczak, S Smith
Durability and climate change - implications for wood building structures
2019 - IRG/WP 19-50361
Sustainable building practices are rooted in the need for reliable information on the long-term performance of building materials; specifically, the expected service-life of building materials, components, and assemblies. This need is ever more evident given the anticipated effects of climate change on the built environment and the many governmental initiatives world-wide focused on ensuring that ...
M Lacasse
Modelling decay rates of timber exposed above ground on four different continents
2020 - IRG/WP 20-20670
Durability performance data from an international decking trial were analysed to explore relationships with climate variables, particularly those related to temperature and rainfall. Matched decking samples of slash pine (Pinus elliottii) sapwood and heartwood, spotted gum (Corymbia citriodora), Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine sapwood (Pinus sylvestris) were exposed to the weather above...
L P Francis, J J Morrell, C Brischke, P B Van Niekerk, J Norton
Is cascading of harvested wood products really an environmentally beneficial strategy in Finland and Norway?
2020 - IRG/WP 20-50364
The role of cascading wood waste in the bioeconomy is highlighted in the several strategic documents. The European Waste Framework Directive describes a waste hierarchy where re-use and recovery are considered more favourable options compared with energy recovery, and applies strict re-use and recycling targets to household waste and non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. It is not fully...
C A S Hill, G Alfredsen, M Hughes, L R Gobakken
Carbon footprint of a cross laminated timber building – Torvbraten school case study
2021 - IRG/WP 21-50366
Torvbråten school is a public school in Asker, Norway, that has reached many sustainability goals. The school was the second in Norway to have Nordic Swan Ecolabel and has a 60 % reduction in carbon footprint compared to the reference benchmark. The building is made of cross laminated timber (CLT) and extensive wood use in general. From a wood protection viewpoint, will this sustainability sustai...
L G F Tellnes, J K Naess, M R Hanssen, P-O Flate
Significance of the thermal design and the sorption isotherm shape in hygroscopic wood moisture dynamics and service life
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20682
Moisture dynamics are considered important for predicting the service performance of wood in exterior applications. Above a critical moisture content, water acts a softener on the structural polymer matrix of the wood cell wall, enabling the necessary diffusion of molecular species involved in the fungal degradation mechanism of wood. Water may enter solid wood in either liquid form or in vapor fo...
W Willems
Using satellite-retrieved soil moisture data to model the decay risk of in-ground timber
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20689
Satellite-derived soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) was extracted for a 9 x 9 km point grid over Europe. The data was then used as input to a dose-response wood decay model based on terrestrial microcosm (TMC) tests. The resulting hazard map plotted dose as an indicator of in-ground wood decay based on differences in annual temperature and soil moisture characteristic...
P B van Niekerk, M Schönauer, B N Marais, C Brischke
Premature adhesion failure of exterior wood coatings – The influence of substrate temperature at coating application and moisture accumulation during storage
2022 - IRG/WP 22-40937
The present study aimed at extending the knowledge about premature coating failures of industrially finished wood cladding. Two potential factors were studied: the influence of substrate temperature at coating application and moisture accumulation during storage on the adhesion of waterborne coating systems. In the first experiment, 4 batches of wood specimens were submitted to 4 different tempera...
U Hundhausen
Simulations of microclimates for wood-decaying fungi in the built environment using environmental analysis
2023 - IRG/WP 23-20703
Simulations of fungal decay risk were run on two similar building geometries exposed to typical annual climate conditions of two different geographical locations, Brunswick (Germany) and Cairns (Australia). The simulations were conducted to capture the effect of wind-driven rain and solar irradiation exposure over nodes of the common building geometry. The moisture content and temperature variatio...
P B van Niekerk, J Niklewski, S H Hosseini, B N Marais, I Frimannslund, T Kringlebotn Thiis, C Brischke
Performance of a noise barrier with different wood materials – results from a service trial after 25 years of exposure
2023 - IRG/WP 23-30776
In connection with the construction of the railway connection between Stockholm Arlanda airport and Stockholm city, an 11 km long noise barrier made of untreated European larch was built along the railway line. This provided an opportunity to implement a full-scale study comparing different untreated wood species and preservative treatments. Thus, in March 1996 ten test sections including untreate...
J Jermer, M Westin
Biological durability and wood-water interactions of sorbitol and citric acid modified wood – Effects on the expected service life
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40960
A high level of research activities on sorbitol and citric acid (SorCA) modified wood has been recognized in Europe over the last few years. As this treatment is close to entering an industrial-scale production, it is of interest to investigate how such treated wood performs upon long-term outdoor exposure. Hence, in this study Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) sapwood was modified with aqueous sol...
K Kurkowiak, L Emmerich, H Militz
End-of-life options for engineered wood products / Treated timber in a circular economy
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50383
Australians are excellent consumers of products. These products ultimately end up as waste materials and need to go somewhere. Australia produces around 28 million tons of waste per year with around 50% currently ending up in landfill, including a significant amount of timber, engineered wood products (EWP’s), and preservative treated wood (PTW). Limited landfill capacity, increasing costs, and ...
H Brooke
Utilising novel service life prediction methods for robust and precise Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC)
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50384
Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC) is one of the basic indicators for the assessment of sustainability and cost effectiveness in construction applications. Project WoodLCC was thus conceived to enable LCC through input from models for detailed service life planning of wooden components and buildings. The project is a continuation of the service life planning research conducted in Europe over the last three ...
P B van Niekerk, G Alfredsen, T Kalamees, R Modaresi, A Sandak, J Niklewski, C Brischke
How personality traits influence the perception of fungal decay in a wooden cladding – A survey in three Modelling wood moisture content in outdoor conditions from measured data
2024 - IRG/WP 24-41002
This study examined perceptions of fungal decay damage on wooden cladding across Norway, Sweden, and Germany. The majority of respondents across all countries did not find the fungal decay damage in question acceptable, with the least acceptance in Norway. This could be due to Norway having the highest frequency of wooden residential buildings and the most experience with maintaining wooden claddi...
G W Gustavsen, G Alfredsen, P B van Niekerk, J Niklewski, C Brischke
Modelling the service life of wood in ground contact – Verification of remotely sensed soil data from the reanalysis dataset ERA5-Land using in-situ measurements at a test site of utility poles in Eastern Norway
2024 - IRG/WP 24-41003
This study compared soil moisture and temperature estimates from the 5th European reanalysis (ERA5-Land) dataset with in-situ measurements to assess the accuracy and applicability of ERA5-Land data for modelling the service life of wood in ground contact. The ERA5-Land soil temperature estimates showed a moderate correlation with the in-situ temperature measurements (Spearman’s ρ of 0.73) and a...
U Hundhausen, P B van Niekerk, B Marais