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Modelling the performance of bio-based building materials
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20582
The ‘bio-based economy’ represents a growing area of development globally and covers a wide range of building materials including wood and wood-based products. A ‘bio-based’ material is intentionally made from substances derived from living (or once-living) organisms. In this context it means that the materials and products are made from renewable resources, with the criteria that a renewa...
C Brischke


Decay of wood in outdoor above ground applications: Preview of results on the effect of climate and species in Spain
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20600
Within the framework of the Project BIA-42434R titled ‘Evaluation of the functional performance of wood in outdoor above ground applications’, seven trials containing seven pieces of sawn wood measuring 750x100x20mm3, belonging to seven different wood species (Scots pine, Radiata pine, Laricio pine, sweet chestnut, eucalyptus, Thermo-treated radiata pine and Spruce), were exposed to unprotecte...
J I Fernández-Golfin Seco, M Conde García, M R Diez Barra, M Conde García, L Acuña Rello, E Torres Álvarez, E Perea Alonso, M T Troya


Development of decay hazard maps based on decay prediction models
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20588
Durability plays a very central role in timber engineering, especially when working with wood in use class 3 and above where the risk of decay is high. As one of the primary decay influencing factors, the external condition, i.e. the local climate, is often graded by some type of climate index value. Predominately, climate indices are based on a direct relationship between weather data and decay. ...
J Niklewski, E Frühwald Hansson, C Brischke, D Kavurmaci


Durability of a willow/plastic composite mat
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20592
Developing uses for wood wastes could enhance utilization of low value renewable materials while creating opportunities for rural development. Small diameter willow stems have little use in China, but they could be combined with high density polyethylene to create wood plastic composite mats for decorative applications. These mats could be used in exterior, above ground exposures, but would still ...
Li Yan, Haiyan Duan, Beizhan Quan, J Cappellazzi, J J Morrell


Evaluation of field test data
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20594
The resistance against fungal decay and insect attack of wood can be highly variable, between boards and even within boards. The variability in durability is not always an issue, but for high demanding applications information about its reliability is required. This comprises the variability of outdoor performance. Durability testing in laboratory and outdoor exposures can provide a good basis to ...
F Bongers, C Brischke, J Van den Bulcke, W Gard, I De Windt, H Militz


Assessment of the biological durability of wood treated with organosilicon compounds
2016 - IRG/WP 16-30685
The European wood construction market is in need of environmentally friendly wood-based products whose service life meets the expectations of end users. Non-biocidal silicon-based water repellents, which can be applied to different materials, help minimize their vulnerability/susceptibility to liquid water. Consequently, they have the potential of increasing wood’s resistance against decay fungi...
M Kutnik, M Montibus, S Derocker, S Salivati, J-P Lecomte


Decay resistance of wood treated with bio-friendly preservative systems
2016 - IRG/WP 16-30698
Due to more restrictive toxicological requirements and increased ecological awareness of consumers, wood preservatives containing biocides are no longer desired on the market. Therefore, research on new environmentally friendly formulations is of great importance. One of the possible solutions is to develop new preservatives based on natural substances, which are harmless to humans, animals and th...
B Mazela, G Cofta, W Perdoch, L Ross Gobakken, P Kwaśniewska-Sip


The durability of manufactured structural building materials
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40718
The projected market potential for Engineered Wood Products such as CLT (cross laminated timber) is very positive however, potential prolonged rain leakage or moisture exposure during construction and in-service could pose considerable concern for its durability and reputation. This research was conducted to assess the decay resistance of CLT and OSB (oriented strand board) in an accelerated trial...
T Singh, D Page


Resistance of heat treated Ash wood under steam pressure: rot fungi, soil micro-organisms and termites
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40724
Thermal modification processes have been developed to increase the biological durability and dimensional stability of wood. The aim of this paper was to study the influence of ThermoWood® treatment intensity on wood decay resistance improvement against soil-inhabiting micro-organisms, brown/white rots and termite’s exposures. All of the tests were carried out in the laboratory with two differen...
K Candelier, S Hannouz, M-F Thévenon, D Guibal, P Gérardin, M Pétrissans, R Collet


How intraspecific radial variability of the European Oak’s may influence mild pyrolysis process and durability of the material
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40725
Last decades wood is promoted as building material. Unprotected wood exposed to outdoor conditions undergoes a variety of degradation induced essentially by fungi attacks. Heat treatment of wood by mild pyrolysis (180°C T 240°C under inert atmosphere) is a preservation process with a weak environmental impact, and therefore, is viewed as an interesting alternative to the chemical impregnation me...
J Hamada, A Pétrissans, F Mothe, M Pétrissans, P Gérardin


The durability of natural and thermomodified black poplar wood and Scots pine sapwood after two years of external exposition
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40730
Natural biological durability of many European wood species is considered to be relatively small, particularly in a ground contact conditions. This is due to the exposure of the wood to the range of biological and atmospheric destructive factors. This may to limit the scope of application of the wood of these species, particularly in construction. The biocides are often used for wood protection in...
A Fojutowski, A Kropacz, A Noskowiak


New perspectives for wood protection: enzyme-based treatments
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40742
Wood protection research is continuously looking for more benign and effective treatments. One of the main concerns deals with the toxicity of the active compounds employed in the formulations of the preservatives, since they could become a health and environmental issue. Secondly, long-lasting treatments are preferred in order to increase the service life of the treated wood. Weathering condition...
C Fernández-Costas, S Palanti, M Á Sanromán, D Moldes


Exterior birch plywood: potentiality of the thermo-hydro treatment
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40743
It has been found in the present study that, in laboratory fungi tests after leaching with water (EN 84), exterior birch (Betula spp.) plywood, as birch solid wood, is subjected to degradation by rot fungi. This limits the use of such plywood outdoors or in building structures in high humidity conditions. The possibility to improve the birch plywood fungal resistance was investigated in two ways: ...
B Andersons, I Andersone, A Meija-Feldmane, I Irbe, A Janberga, J Grinins


Development of a new method for wood hydrophobizing and fixation of copper compounds by chemical hardening of vegetable based modified oils
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40754
Wood products with ground and direct water contact, but without sufficient biological durability, have to be protected against biological degradation by fungi and other microorganisms. Due to European legislation (Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012), the selection of possible chemical agents, which are still allowed to be used, is diminishing rapidly. The use of previously widely applied, very ...
C Swaboda, M Fischer, K Jacobs


Accelerated weathering and fungal resistance of wood modified with isopropenyl acetate
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40764
Chemical modification of Rubberwood (Heveabrasiliensis Müll.Arg) with isopropenyl acetate (IPA) in presence of anhydrous aluminum chloride and iodine as catalysts was carried out. Modified wood surfaces were exposed to UV light source in an accelerated weathering tester to evaluate UV resistance. Anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) and fungal resistance of modified wood were also evaluated. Modified w...
G B Nagarajappa, K K Pandey


Fire retardant treated wood products – Properties and uses
2016 - IRG/WP 16-30701
Wood is combustible, but can still perform very well in fire, especially for load bearing structures. However, visible wood surface may not fulfil the fire requirements in building codes and fire retardant treatments may be an option. The highest reaction to fire classification for combustible products may then be reached. However, the excellent fire performance of the virgin fire retardant treate...
B Östman, L Tsantaridis


State of the art of industrial wood protection in Portugal
2016 - IRG/WP 16-30703
This work intended to give a perspective of industrial wood protection in Portugal. A survey was made of the companies treating wood mainly for use classes 3 and 4 such as autoclave treatments with biocides and wood modification procedures. Currently there are 23 companies with 33 production plants with an autoclave installed for wood preservation by impregnation. There are also two companies prod...
L Nunes, J Carmo, J Vicente, B Esteves


10 year Report on COST E37 Round Robin Tests – Comparison of results from laboratory and field tests
2017 - IRG/WP 17-30718
A round robin involving 15 European participants was set up in 2006. The round robin consisted of both a field test according to the double layer test method and a laboratory test with two different preconditioning methods. The laboratory test results were reported in an earlier IRG paper (IRG/WP13-20535) but are included also in this paper in order to facilitate the comparison with the field test...
M Westin, E Conti, J Creemers, P-O Flæte, A Gellerich, I Irbe, M Klamer, E Melcher, R Moeller, L Nunes, S Palanti, L Reinprecht, E Suttie, H Viitanen


Durability Testing of a Cattail (Typha spp.) based Insulation Material against Termite Attack
2017 - IRG/WP 17-10879
The use of insulating materials is particularly important in the construction industries, especially with regard to the use of wood and naturally occurring substances. The use and durability of natural materials as insulating materials is of keen interest to many construction experts, and continues to be a topic of intense investigation. It is generally agreed that the use of natural substances ...
M Dass, W Unger, T L Woods


Comparative studies on the durability of English oak (Quercus robur L.) under in-service, field and laboratory conditions
2017 - IRG/WP 17-10881
The durability of many wood species varies due to differences in extractive content, anatomical features, growth conditions, and not at least in dependence of the respective exposure conditions either under test or in real life applications. And so does the durability of English oak (Quercus robur L.), which has recently been considered in the revised European standard EN 350 (2016) and is now cla...
C Brischke, L Meyer-Veltrup, A Soetbeer, M Höpken, E Melcher, J Trautner


Assessing the natural durability for different tropical timber species using the mini-block test
2017 - IRG/WP 17-10886
The Xylarium in the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA, Tervuren, Belgium) contains over 60,000 wood-samples, comprising over 12,000 species. These samples are of great historical and scientific value yet have a random format, which complicates standard testing. The wood-durability against Coniophora puteana and Trametes versicolor was tested for 36 species. Due to the random sample sizes the s...
V Deklerck, I De Windt, N Defoirdt, J Van den Bulcke, H Beeckman, E Espinoza, J Van Acker


Natural durability of Sextonia rubra, an Amazonian tree species: description and origin
2017 - IRG/WP 17-10887
Sextonia rubra is a tropical tree species belonging to Lauraceae family. In French Guiana, its long lasting heartwood is largely exploited for different purposes including house construction, and furniture making. Decay tests have confirmed S. rubra natural durability, and led us to discover some variability. Rubrynolide and rubrenolide, which are two majors metabolites isolated from the heartwood...
E Houël, A Rodrigues, E Nicolini, O Ngwete, C Duplais, D Stien, N Amusant


A review on prediction methods of wood natural durability
2017 - IRG/WP 17-10892
Natural durability of timber may be defined as “inherent ability of timber to attack by wood destroying organisms (bacteria, fungi, insects, marine borers) without preservative treatment. On the base of biological tests, EN-350-2 standard (Afnor, 1994), describe the classification of wood species according to their natural durability. But these specifications are not adapted in the case of wood ...
N Amusant, C Flora, J Beauchène, E Houël, C Duplais


Laboratory test to determine the effect on durability of combining biobased building materials with timber in construction
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20604
The use of Structural Insulated panels is a construction approach that is seeing more abundant use and is becoming a widely available method. Preformed units are usually a composite structure which often include a range of bio-based materials such as timber, wool or straw. Traditional laboratory based wood decay tests do not take into account this combination of biobased materials and it may be po...
S F Curling, G A Ormondroyd


Redwood Durability in NZ – Can pure culture laboratory tests predict outdoor service life
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20610
Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is an alternative species in New Zealand to the large scale Pinus radiata plantations. Redwood is classified as moderately durable but its durability is extremely variable. In order to reduce this variability in future stock, understanding growth conditions, clone, and tree age effects are important however this involves many samples and is not suitable for ass...
D O’Callahan, C Chittenden, J van der Waals, D Meason, T Singh


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