Resistance of WPC against wood destroying fungi

IRG/WP 13-40627

A Gellerich, S Bollmus, A Krause

The investigation of biological durability is a fundamental topic to assess the performance of Wood Plastic Composites (WPC) particularly for outdoor applications. In the last years, different test setups based on existing standards on the field of wood as well as the field of plastics were used for WPC. But the test methodologies give different information about the durability of the tested material. The objective of this study was to investigate the resistance of WPC against wood destroying basidiomycetes adapted to prEN 15534-1 (2012) which was adjusted to test WPC. Additionally to the mass loss, MOE and MOR of the tested material before and after water storage as well as after fungal test were evaluated. The tested material showed very low mass losses and no significantly decrease in MOR and MOE caused by fungal decay. Rather the MOE and MOR are strongly decreased caused by water uptake. The mechanical evaluation after water storage and decay testing may provide additional important information, which might strongly affect the long-term behavior and durability of the material in outside application.


Keywords: WPC, durability test, MOR, MOE, moisture

Conference: 13-06-16/20 Stockholm, Sweden


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