IRG Documents Database and Compendium


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Use of Moisture Meters with Treated Wood
2007 - IRG/WP 07-40382
Drying wood treated with waterborne preservatives after treatment to near outdoor EMC conditions improves its physical performance characteristics. This is primarily due to the reduced checking, splitting and warping which can occur when wet wood, particularly if restrained from shrinking by being nailed or otherwise fastened, shrinks in use. Monitoring of the drying process, rate, and end point...
W B Smith, Hwan Myeong Yeo, C Stark, B Morey, C Tascioglu, P Schneider, D Herdman, M Freeman


Effect of fiber type and content on the natural durability of wood flour/high density polyethylene composites against rainbow fungus (Coriolus versicolor)
2007 - IRG/WP 07-40387
In order to evaluate the effect of fiber type and content on the natural durability of wood flour/high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites against Coriolus versicolor, samples containing 25% and 50% by weight of various natural fibers and HDPE were selected. Natural fibers included in the study were wood flour, rice hulls, hemp fibers and newsprint. Samples containing 25% and 50% natural fiber ...
A Karimi, M Tajvidi, S Pourabbasi


Kd values of Cu, Cr, As in different soil matrix
2007 - IRG/WP 07-50247
Chromated copper arsenate (CCA), a long history of successful preservative, have raised environmental concerns. Adsorption characteristics of domestic soils for chromium, copper, and arsenic were assessed by measuring distribution coefficient (Kd) values of these metal components. The results revealed that Kd values were higher in chromium, followed by arsenic and copper in soil matrix. Different...
Sung-Mo Kang, Seung-Hun Shin, Ja-Oon Koo


A hypothesis on a second non-biocidal property of wood extractives, in addition to toxicity, that affects termite behavior and mortality
2008 - IRG/WP 08-10638
While it is has long been recognized that heartwood extractives affect termite behavior, the exact cause and relationship between total extractives, extractive types, and termite resistance remains unclear. Generally, researchers have proposed that the extractives are toxic and/or repel termites. We propose, based on the well known fact that many extractives have excellent antioxidant properties...
T P Schultz, K Ragon, D D Nicholas


Water Absorption of Various Building Materials and Mold Growth
2008 - IRG/WP 08-10657
Mold growth is a major problem for house owners, as it often occurs on the surface of building materials in damp houses. The principal method to control mold growth on building materials is to prevent water penetration into the materials. A study was recently conducted to determine water absorption rates of different wood species and panel materials used as building materials, when water intrusi...
Dian-Qing Yang


In-service performance of wood depends upon the critical in-situ conditions. Case studies.
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20382
Wood is a unique building material, but is by nature designed to deteriorate. A detailed understanding of the factors and interactions involved are important when working with service life prediction of wooden components in buildings. Wood may experience exponential fungal degradation caused by variation in the climatic factors within a small limited area and by minor imperfection in the wooden ...
L Ross Gobakken, J Mattsson, G Alfredsen


A preliminary note on the role of moisture absorption rate in durability assessment
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20383
The rate of moisture uptake was studied in 15 wood species using vermiculite at varying moisture levels as the exposure medium. As might be expected, moisture uptake varied widely among the species studied. While some of the more durable wood species were also resistant to moisture uptake, this was not always true. The results are discussed in relation to performance in under varying environmenta...
J J Morrell, L P Francis


Field Liners as physical barriers to prevent wooden utility pole decay in soil: An accelerated field simulation trial
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20384
Field Liners (FL’s), plastic sleeves used to protect in-ground wooden poles from fungal and termite damage, have been tested before as physical barriers to prevent contact between soil and wood and to retain wood preservative treatment. These earlier studies concentrated mostly on creosote preserved poles and early generation FL’s which were cumbersome in their application. The newer generatio...
A R Howgrave-Graham, L J Cookson, T Hale


Service life prediction of wood: scale-dependent tools within a bio-engineering framework
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20387
Service life prediction (SLP) is a complex yet essential method for the building industry. Accurate and precise assessment of the components is crucial for a strong position of wood on the market. As it is a biological material, wood has an inherent variability and is susceptible to fungal attack. Therefore a profound knowledge of these characteristics is the corner stone of SLP for wood products....
J Van den Bulcke, J Van Acker, M Stevens


Effects of acetic acid and nitric acid pre-treatment on copper content of spruce wood treated with CBA-A and CCA
2008 - IRG/WP 08-40406
This work investigates the effects of nitric acid and acetic acid on compression strength values and copper retention contents of refractory spruce wood (Picea oriental L.) treated with the waterborne preservative Copper azole, (CBA-A, Tanalith-E 3492) and copper / chrom / arsenic (CCA). Before the CBA-A and CCA treatment, the samples were immersed in 500 ml of nitric and acetic acid solutions for...
S Yildiz, E Dizman, Ü C Yildiz


Measurement of wood decay by dynamic MOE in an accelerated soil contact test
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20390
Current laboratory and field testing of preservatives involves various techniques to determine the extent of fungal attack, including visual inspection, mass loss, and static bending and compression strength measurements. The objective of this study was to compare decay measurement by conventional compression strength versus dynamic MOE, employing small wood stakes in an accelerated laboratory so...
Gan Li, D D Nicholas, T P Schultz


Biological Performance of micronized copper wood preservative formulations in field and laboratory tests
2008 - IRG/WP 08-30488
Micronized Copper wood preservative formulations with different co-biocides were exposed to brown rot fungi in an 8-week AWPA E10 soil block decay test and two AWPA E7 ground-contact decay tests in Hawaii. The micronized copper formulations performed well against decay at or above the AWPA UC3 and UC4 retentions stipulated by the ICC-ES. Micronized copper preservatives performed comparably to a ...
G M Larkin, J Zhang, D L Richter, R J Ziobro, P E Laks


Laboratory and field exposures of FRT plywood: Part 1. Physical test data
2008 - IRG/WP 08-40426
Our understanding of the laboratory induced degradation with fire retardant systems is currently limited since we are unable to correlate laboratory steady-state experiments with actual in-service field degradation. Current model studies have generally been limited to isothermal rate studies with selected model FR chemicals. Other factors also play a major role in the degradation of FR-treated woo...
H M Barnes, J E Winandy, C R McIntyre


Accelerated weathering of nine tropical wood species from Cameroon
2009 - IRG/WP 09-10705
The natural durability of tropical species for building components has been a subject of recent concern and questioning, mainly the resistance to weathering. Weathering resistance of nine tropical species from Cameroon, namely Azobe, Bilinga, Bubinga, Teak, Dousie, Moabi, Musanga, Sipo and Padauk were evaluated using an accelerated weatherometer for 2016 hours. Measurement of moisture fluctuation,...
S Pankras, Jinzhen Cao, D P Kamdem


Moisture adsorption isotherms of wood studies using a dynamic vapour sorption apparatus
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20398
Five types of wood including two Malaysian hardwoods acacia mangium (Acacia mangium) and sesenduk (Endospermum malaccense), two temperate softwoods, Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), radiata pine (Pinus radiata) and Accoya (commercially modified wood) were studied to determine their moisture sorption behaviour using a Dynamic Vapour Sorption (DVS) apparatus. The isotherm plot for each species teste...
J Zaihan, C A S Hill, S Curling


Durability and fungal colonisation patterns in wood samples after six years in soil contact evaluated with qPCR, microscopy, TGA, chitin- and ergosterol assays
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20402
There is a need to establish new objective and sensitive methods for early detection and quantification of decay fungi in wood materials. Molecular methods have proven to be a useful tool within wood protection issues, however, this field is still poorly explored and so far relatively few have used these methods within the field of wood deterioration. Among the techniques used in the indirect quan...
A Pilgård, G Alfredsen, I Børja, C Björdal


Building with termites: The challenge of biomimetic design for carbon neutral buildings.
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20405
The main aim of this paper is to present humanity and termites as design partners in the creation of a new dimension of ecosystem understanding. “Beyond biomimicry: What termites can tell us about realizing the living building”, Turner and Soar (2008) opens up a new era in how we think of human habitations, not only on earth, but maybe on other planets, and using the termite model as the corne...
J R J French, B M Ahmed (Shiday)


Evaluation of exposure conditions for wooden facades and decking
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20408
During their functional life, building components are exposed to moisture and other environment stress conditions in numerous ways. This is a fact that should be taken into account during manufacture, product development, designing and work execution of building components. For wood material, moisture stress and biological factors like mould and decay fungi are often critical in cladding and decki...
H Viitanen, T Toratti, R Peuhkuri, T Ojanen, L Makkonen


Continuous moisture measurement (CMM) to detect failure of moisture resistance
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20422
A wood coating system will fail to perform properly after a certain time of weathering. From that moment, the substrate is especially prone to fungal attack. Moisture plays a key role on weathering performance, wood protection efficacy and decay susceptibility of wood. Therefore, knowledge of the moisture dynamics of the applied wood protection is of significant importance in the prediction of the...
I De Windt, J Van den Bulcke, J Van Acker


Wood properties influencing the penetration of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) sapwood with the wood modification agent furfuryl alcohol
2009 - IRG/WP 09-40470
The European standard EN 350-2 classifies Scots pine sapwood as class 1 (easy to treat). However large variations in sapwood penetration exist which affect a homogenous distribution of preservatives. Hence individual penetration schemes have to be developed and adjusted to the material most difficult to treat in order to provide adequate sapwood penetration. To ensure better economic process con...
K Zimmer, E Larnøy, G Koch


The effect of chemical changes on the wood-moisture relationships in thermally-modified wood
2009 - IRG/WP 09-40473
Small specimens of three wood species were thermally modified following twenty schedules in the 190-245°C temperature range for treatment times between 0.3 and 16 h. Five wood-moisture relations were subsequently determined, namely: anti-swelling efficiency (ASE), movement, hygroscopicity (adsorption and desorption), transversal swelling (radial and tangential directions), and equilibrium moistur...
M M González-Peña, M D C Hale


Microscopy evaluation of microbial decay patterns in wood stakes after 6 years in soil contact
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10715
Most studies on wood modification have so far been concerned with service life predictions rather than investigating the decay protection mechanism. Very little is known about the mode of action of these new treatments and about the strategies used by wood degraders in order to utilize the wood material despite a treatment. Access to such knowledge would allow further modification and improvement ...
A Pilgård, C G Björdal


Seasonal shifts of fungal community structure at the interface of treated or untreated wood and soil
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10721
Many wood species are degraded rapidly in soil by the fungal community. In order to preserve wood and structures in which it is used, chemical preservatives are used. Little is known about the interaction of treated wood and the surrounding soil fungal community. For this work, presented at IRG 41, wooden specimens (Pinus sylvestris sapwood, sizes 25 mm x 50 mm x 500 mm (longitudinal)) were treate...
M Noll, I Stephan


Structural changes, basidiomycete richness, enzyme activity and proteomic profiling of decay resistant and non-resistant woods over 18 months in soil contact
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10733
Wood decay fungi damage wood by production of enzymes that attack the structural components. The objective of this study was to better understand which suite of decay genes and proteins are expressed during biodeterioration of three different wood types in forest soil over time. Variation in decay genes and proteins were determined for pine (non-resistant), cedar (naturally durable), and ACQ-treat...
Youngmin Kang, S Diehl, L Prewitt, D Nicholas


Drying Rates and Mold Growth on Various Building Materials under Different Environmental Conditions
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20454
Mold growth on building materials is a major problem for homeowners. The most suitable method to control mold growth on building materials is to utilize design features, construction tools and practices that prevent moisture accumulation, and keep the wood as dry as possible. In order to achieve this, engineers and homebuilders have to know the effects of various temperature and moisture conditi...
Dian-Qing Yang


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