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Finite Element Modelling of the Checking of Wood Exposed to Accelerated Weathering
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20459
The surface checking that develops when wood is exposed to the weather reduces the visual appeal of treated wood products and can reduce the effectiveness of preservative treatments. There is strong interest in developing solutions to this problem and also a growing realization that such solutions may evolve from a deeper understanding of the mechanisms responsible for surface checking. In this pa...
S G Ribarits, P D Evans


Use of Internal Remedial Treatment to Extend Wood Life at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
2010 - IRG/WP 10-30525
The condition of wood in a reconstructed fur trading fort was assessed over a 30 year period. Poor initial treatment had resulted in the development of extensive early decay. While supplemental treatment with chloropicrin and methylisothiocyanate had arrested the attack, the results suggested that remedial treatments were unable to completely overcome the initial problems associated with treatmen...
C S Love, C Freitag, J J Morrell


Life Cycle Assessment Comparison of Treated Wood to Alternate Materials – Overview, Results and Lessons
2011 - IRG/WP 11-50282
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has proven useful in documenting the “green” benefits of various treated products compared to the commonly used alternates. To date, six LCA comparisons have been done or are nearing completion using ISO14040 and 14044 principles and data from US EPA databases. In almost all cases, the impact indicators for treated wood products show considerably smaller adverse e...
T Stephen, P E Smith, C R McIntyre


WOOD: its importance in our life
2012 - IRG/WP 12-40583
As it is described by Hoadley (1980) and Tsoumis (1991), wood is an organic material yielded by trees which increase in diameter by the formation of new woody layers which envelop the entire stem. Wood has served man since he appeared on Earth (as a fuel and/or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, paper, and artworks). It is important to appreciate th...
I Usta


Guideline for Environmental Product Declaration for Thermally Modified Timber
2012 - IRG/WP 12-50287
Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) intend to enable the comparison of the environmental attributes of products that meet equivalent functional requirements. This guideline describes the proceedings of EPD for thermally modified timber (TMT). The main objective is the general survey on requirements on EPD which are based on European and international standards.Up to now only a few EPDs for na...
L Clauder


Mould growth on wood-based materials – a simulated in-service study
2012 - IRG/WP 12-20503
Ten different wood-based materials including preservative-treated wood, fire retardant-treated wood, modified wood, WPCs and untreated references of pine sapwood and spruce were placed in three different environments (an attic and two crawl spaces) for a period of 26 months. Mould growth was analysed at five to seven month intervals in an effort to map the growth development. The relative humidit...
G Bok, P Johansson, J Jermer


Cell wall properties of softwood deteriorated by fungi: combined chemical analyses, FT-IR spectroscopy, nanoindentation and micromechanical modelling
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20527
Mechanical properties of wood are determined by its inherent hierarchical microstructure, starting at the nanometer scale, where the elementary components cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin build up the wood cell wall material. Fungi cause degradation and decomposition of these components and, thus, alter the mechanical properties of wood. The aim of this study is to gain new insight into these...
L Wagner, T K Bader, K de Borst, T Ters, K Fackler


Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of ACQ-Treated Lumber Decking with Comparisons to Wood Plastic Composite Decking
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50295
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of ACQ (alkaline copper quaternary)-treated lumber decking and wood plastic composite decking using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood decking are significant. • Less En...
AquAeTer, Inc.


Conclusions and Summary Report on an Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Borate-Treated Lumber Structural Framing with Comparisons to Galvanized Steel Framing
2013 - IRG/WP 13-50296
The Treated Wood Council has completed a quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the national production, use, and disposition of borate (disodium octaborate tetrahydrate)-treated lumber structural framing and galvanized steel framing using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies and following ISO 14044 standards. The results for treated wood framing are significant....
AquAeTer, Inc.


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.


Encapsulation Systems Combined with DOT Borate Treatments – The Future of Treated Crossties
2014 - IRG/WP 14-40670
Borates have been utilized in wood protection systems for many decades but only recently have been used in North America to treat crossties. This colorless, ordorless and very effective wood protection chemical has the ability to arrest and prevent the colonization of wood by both basidiomycete decay fungi and insects such as beetles and termites while ties are air seasoning or in service. Since ...
S C Kitchens, T L Amburgey


Studying fungal growth using automated image analysis and computer simulations
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20590
Wooden materials are prone to fungal attack resulting in damage and economic losses. Therefore many efforts have been made to understand the degradation of wood and to avoid the adverse effect of fungi. Even though the extent of degradation of a material is inversely proportional to the extension of the fungi attacking it, most researchers focus mainly on the former, leaving the study of the latte...
G Vidal-Diez de Ulzurrun, J M Baetens, J Van den Bulcke, B De Baets


Depictions on Wood: Acceptation and Internalization of Wood, which is an intercultural interaction tool, as “A Valuable Object” (Wood is Life)
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40719
Wood is a valuable material for the production of a wide variety of products, and also is a precious material in relation to its ability to provide a more appropriate and acceptable service to users. As wood is uniquely suited for a variety of uses, it has been used extensively for many purposes since ancient times, and even today it is used for a wider variety of purposes than it used to be due t...
I Usta


Properties of Wood Plastic Composites Made of Recycled HDPE and Remediated Wood Flour from CCA/CCB Treated Wood Removed from Service
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40747
Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and copper, chromium and boron (CCB) have been widely used in pressure treated wood as a heavy duty preservative to protect wood against insects and fungi for more than 60 years. Although many attempts have been done to solve the problems related to out-service treated wood, the problem still remains. Only a few studies were done to utilize the out-of service treate...
E D Gezer, S Akbaş, M Tufan, A Temiz


Life cycle assessment of creosote treated wood and tall oil treated wood with focus on end-of-life
2016 - IRG/WP 16-50320
The use of creosote for protecting wood products in heavy-duty application outdoors has been common for many years, but stricter regulations have limited creosote’s use. Life cycle assessments (LCA) have shown that in some applications alternatives to creosote treated products do not have less environmental impacts. Searching for alternatives to creosote, tall-oil-based preservatives have been ...
L G F Tellnes, U Hundhausen


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 summary of history and use of timber bridges in New Zealand
2017 - IRG/WP 17-40801
Wooden bridges have been an important part of road and rail networks in New Zealand. While wooden structures have largely been replaced by concrete and steel on major arteries they still have a place where lightweight, easily assembled structures are needed. These timber bridges may also be a cheaper alternative to other materials in roads which carry relatively low traffic loads. In the last ten ...
D Page, T Singh


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


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


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


Environmental protection and long term in-service sustainability of preserved wooden poles is secured by non-toxic barrier protection system – History and case studies in South Africa
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50340
Non-toxic flexible sheeting systems have been developed to encapsulate the ground contact regions of preserved wooden poles and prevent their premature failure in South Africa since 1992 but the technology also has a long history of resistance by individuals with vested interests in the built-in redundancies of such poles. The concept has, however, been simultaneously validated by many independent...
A A W Baecker


Performance of modified wood in service - multi-sensor data fusion and its multi-way analysis
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20660
Recent developments in the field of electronic sensors and analytics provide new opportunity for accurate characterization of materials often based on portable and non-destructive methods. By using several complementary techniques, the material description is precise and complete. The data provided by multiple equipment, however, are often not directly comparable due to different resolution, sensi...
A Sandak, J Sandak, M Cocchi


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