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Comparative studies on the moisture performance and durability of wooden facades
2012 - IRG/WP 12-20492
Wooden claddings are traditionally used in many parts of the world. Also modern structures are frequently made from timber and timber engineering panel products. However, wood has to compete with other cladding materials and its durability needs to assure sufficient functional and aesthetic service life. Besides many other factors the durability of a wooden facade is dominated by its moisture perf...
T Bornemann, C Brischke, J-M Lück


Testing service life for use class 3: accelerated L-joint performance of commodities
2012 - IRG/WP 12-20500
Above ground testing is considered important for the assessment of treated wood intended for use class 3. Laboratory testing of efficacy of biocides as well as of natural durability focussing on such applications has to be linked to performance and service life. An accelerated L-joint test was some 15 years ago developed at the Ghent University to allow worst case assessment under semi-controlled ...
J Van Acker, J Van den Bulcke, I De Windt, L De Vetter


A critical view on early indicators for above ground field performance of wood
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20509
Above ground field tests are quite often a balancing act between the provision of realistic test conditions, reliable statistics, and acceptable long test durations. Within this study we therefore reviewed 543 data sets from above ground field tests performed at 36 different test sites in 8 countries in Australia and Europe. The main objective was to investigate possible correlations between early...
C Brischke, L Meyer, G Alfredsen, P-O Flæte, L Francis, M Hansson, P Larsson Brelid, J Jermer


Climatic impacts on the moisture performance of wooden decking and facades
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20518
In outdoor usage wood is exposed to a variety of influences, which reduce its durability against biological deterioration and wetting. Besides many other factors the service life of wooden facades and cladding is dominated by occurring moisture loads on the one hand and their capability to withstand moisture on the other hand. Hence, climatic factors have a direct impact on the material climate an...
T Bornemann, C Brischke, G Alfredsen


Performance standards for wood in construction – delivering customer service life requirements
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20537
There is increasing need for consideration of performance classification for wood products in construction, as evidenced by the CPR, warranty providers and end user demands for information. This means we need to radically consider how the tests we conduct on wood for durability (especially biological durability) can inform on service life and how they might if possible be translated into a perform...
E Suttie, C Brischke, F Englund, E Heisel, J Jermer, D Lorenzo, M Polášek, S Thelandersson, J Van Acker


Performance of recent and old Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) wood
2014 - IRG/WP 14-10816
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) hardwood is one of the most durable European wood species. In the present research, various aspects that could potentially influence the durability were elucidated, namely: presence of extractives, ring width, and weathering. Simultaneously, properties of wood, which was in outdoor use for 35 years, were elucidated as well. The results indicate that ring width and ...
M Humar, M Žlahtič, N Thaler


Performance classification of wood in construction – drafting a user friendly European standard
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20545
The performance classification for wood products in construction is an extremely important topic in Europe and beyond – warranty providers and end users demand service life and performance information in the face of competition with other materials. The European project PerformWOOD has formalised and drawn together the on-going research to focus on generation of a material resistance factor for ...
E Suttie, C Brischke, L Meyer, J Van Acker, M Kutnik, E Heisel, F Englund, J Jermer, S Thelandersson, M Polášek, D Lorenzo


The combined effect of wetting ability and durability on field performance – verification of a new prediction approach
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20565
Comprehensive approaches to predict performance of wood products are requested by international standards and the first attempts have been made in the frame of European research projects. However, there is still an immanent need for a methodology to implement the durability and moisture performance of wood in a performance classification system. The aim of this study was therefore to establish an ...
C Brischke, G Alfredsen, P-O Flæte, M Humar, T Isaksson, L Meyer


Performance of bio-based building materials – viewpoints from the first year of COST Action FP1303
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20572
Maintaining and expanding the market potential for bio-based building products in indoor and outdoor construction uses remains a key activity for industries in the forestry and biotechnological sector, particularly in Europe. Whilst there are ongoing activities within IRG for collecting and populating a database on performance on wood, the performance data for many other (i.e. non-wood) "environme...
D Jones


On the effect of climate and exposure conditions on durability indicators and their potential for service life prediction of wood-based products
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20576
In order to encourage increased use of wood, different user groups need to be better informed regarding the variation in performance between different wood materials and the effect of different use classes. It is also important to provide good empirical data on the service life of wood products as input to for example life cycle assessment studies. In the current study the effect of temperature an...
G Alfredsen, C Brischke, P-O Flæte, M Humar, L Meyer-Veltrup


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


Expert versus multi-sensor evaluation of wood samples after short term weathering
2016 - IRG/WP 16-20587
Understanding the influence of weathering factors and the material degradation mechanisms are fundamental for modelling the weathering process of wood. The goal of this work was to investigate the combined effect of time and exposure on the physical-chemical mechanisms of wood weathering. Four exposure directions (North, South, East and West) were investigated. Experimental tests were performed fo...
A Sandak, J Sandak, I Burud, L Ross Gobakken, M Noël


Hygrothermal performance of ventilated wooden cladding
2016 - IRG/WP 16-40733
The risk for an attack of wooden claddings by decay and discolouring fungi strongly depends on the moisture and temperature conditions in the building envelope. The design of the cladding has a major influence on its hygrothermal performance. In the present study, different wooden ventilated cladding designs were investigated at a test house in Mid-Norway for four years. The objective was to incre...
K Nore, U Hundhausen


Design and performance prediction of timber structures based on a factorization approach
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20603
Service life of timber structures in outdoor conditions is predominantly affected by the climatic conditions in terms of moisture and temperature over time. On the one hand, the two parameters moisture content and temperature determine the exposure-induced dosage that can lead to fungal infestation and subsequent decay. On the other hand, the material resistance of wood stands in opposition to exp...
L Meyer-Veltrup, C Brischke


Prediction of service life – does aesthetic matter?
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20618
Building structures should be designed in order to satisfy requirements regarding safety, serviceability, durability and aesthetics, assuring proper structure performance along the entire service life. For that reason it is essential to understand overall deterioration mechanism at levels of element, component, façade and entire building. This work focuses specifically on the façade aesthetical ...
A Sandak, J Sandak


Influence of Weathering on Moisture Performance of Wood
2017 - IRG/WP 17-20619
Water performance of wood is besides the inherent durability the most important factor that influences on the performance of wood in outdoor, above ground applications. Therefore it is of significant importance to optimize the methods that are able to predict the moisture behaviour of wood in outdoor applications. In order to elucidate this questions, samples were prepared of oak (Quercus), sweet ...
M Žlahtič-Zupanc, B Lesar, N Thaler, M Humar


In-service performance of treated plywood bridge decks in Australia
2017 - IRG/WP 17-40794
Engineered wood products have a long history of use in bridge construction in Australia. The first bridges incorporating chemically protected engineered wood components were installed in the 1850’s and some survive to this day. Preservative treated plywood bridge deck panels have been employed since the 1980’s as a replacement for the more traditional hardwood plank decks. This paper report...
M A Powell


Performance of Norway spruce bridge in North-West Spain after 12 years exposure
2017 - IRG/WP 17-40796
Across Europe is very common to find bridges build in sawn and glue-laminated wood. Most of these bridges used softwood wood species such as: fir, spruce, larch and pine. In Spain wooden bridges, became more and more popular since nineties, when sawn and glue-laminated wood were utilized for building exterior wooden structures in overall Spain. This material, sawn and glue-laminated wood, are ma...
D Lorenzo, J Fernández-Golfín, M Touza, M Guaita, A Lozano, J Benito


In-service performance of wood claddings and windows – a Norwegian survey
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20632
The overall aim of the study was to strengthen the empirical data on decay frequency and in-service performance of claddings and windows in Norway. Data from a survey of claddings and windows from 38 Norwegian houses is presented. The main findings for wooden claddings: 1) predominance of decay was detected in east facing claddings, while the largest decayed areas were located on south facing clad...
L Ross Gobakken, G Alfredsen


Simulation and visualization of aesthetic performance of bio-based building skin
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20633
Performance of 120 selected façade materials provided by over 30 industrial and academic partners is under evaluation. The experimental data, acquired during BIO4ever project duration are used for development of the numerical models simulating the material degradation in a function of time and exposure. The weather data calculated according to the ASHRAE 2013 database allows numerical simulation ...
J Sandak, A Sandak, P Grossi, M Petrillo


Transfer of research results on the performance of wood and wood-based composites in outdoor applications into praxis
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20634
Forest-based industries have the potential to become an engine for a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy in Danube region. To reach this goal FORESDA projects was proposed. Main aim of respective project is transforming the traditional forest-based areas into innovative, modern and sustainable manufacturing areas; develop innovation-friendly ecosystems aiming to significantly improving and reco...
B Lesar, J Gričar, D Kržišnik, M Humar


Enhancing service life performance of oak decking and cladding using organosilicon treatments
2018 - IRG/WP 18-40838
The Life+ project SILEX, in full “Improving sustainability of construction materials using innovative Silicon based treatment” started in April 2013 and was finalized mid 2017. The aim of this project was to demonstrate that a new class of compounds can be used for wood treatment for an extended service life combined with enhanced new testing methodology. Ultimately, it was the intention to de...
J Van Acker, J Van den Bulcke, J-P Lecomte


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


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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