IRG Documents Database and Compendium


Search and Download IRG Documents:



Between and , sort by


Displaying your search results

Your search resulted in 1477 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.


New wood-modification process based on grafted urethane groups: Durability of carbamamylated Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) wood
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40974
Substituting commonly used toxic preservatives with wood modification treatments can make the wood material less prone to water and moisture uptake. This approach favours a more sustainable protection of wood against biodegradation. In this study, Scots pine sapwood was full-cell impregnated with an aqueous solution of urea (30%), dried at 40°C for 24h, and subsequently heat-treated at 150°C for...
C-F Lin, O Myronycheva, O Karlsson, D Jones, D Sandberg


Failure characteristics of thermally modified poplar wood subjected to mechanical tests
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40983
Poplar (Populus spp.) are among the fastest growing timber species and have been widely planted for use in plywood, composites, pallets, furniture components and paper production. However, the low density of the wood limits many structural applications and the wood has little resistance to biodegradation. Thermal modification represents one approach to improving durability by changing the moistur...
E Bari, M Ghorbanian Far, N Moradi, J J Morrell, G Daniel, B Mohebby, R Hosseinpourpia, M Humar


Properties of thermal modified wood of Pinus pinaster and Pinus radiata from Galicia, Spain
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40985
This article provides the results of a research about the properties of thermal modified wood of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.), radiata pine (Pinus radiata D.Don) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from Galicia, Spain, thermal treated in the industrial vacuum-heat autoclave plant of FINSA group in Galicia, Spain. These three pine wood species are used in different solid products but due th...
D Lorenzo, J Benito, J Arancón, J Crespo


Modification of Gmelina arborea wood for utilization in Nigeria
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40986
The level of protection achieved by any wood treatment process is dependent on achieving a sufficient uptake and penetration of the treatment chemicals. This phenomenon is also applicable when considering chemical modification of any wood species. The desired changes in physical, mechanical or durability enhancement of treated species can only be achieved beyond a superficial treatment. For this, ...
S O Olaniran, H Militz


Multi-scale Experimental Study on Self-sustained Smouldering of CCA-treated Timber Poles
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40988
While it is accepted that appropriate treatment with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) will extend the design life of wood markedly, there are concerns regarding the effect of treatment on fire performance. Smouldering combustion in CCA-treated timber infrastructure can self-sustain, destroying the timber elements, as the chromium and copper present in the CCA can act as catalysts of the smouldering...
W Wu, L Yerman, J J Morrell, F Wiesner


Bio-inspired wood protection, modification and functionalization
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40989
Wood is a versatile, natural, and environmentally friendly resource that has attracted attention as a material for sustainable building for many years. Recent advances in materials research have delivered several innovative solutions for the construction sector. However, intrinsic properties of wood affects its operational durability, which is still a limiting factor in many applications and envir...
A Sandak, K Butina Ogorelec, F Poohphajai, A Gubenšek, R Herrera Diaz, O Gordobil


Modification of wood by fast pyrolysis bio-oil – the NewWave project concept for bio-based wood treatment
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40990
The NewWave project aims to contribute to building a circular economy by introducing sustainable raw materials in different manufacturing lines, replacing toxic chemicals and lowering the environmental footprint of the products. The raw materials are obtained from the thermochemical fractionation of biomass. This process converts biomass residues by fast pyrolysis into Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil (FPBO...
A Sandak, J Sandak, F Poohphajai, R Herrera Diaz, A Gubenšek, K Butina Ogorelec, L Kiezebrink, K J Swager, H Heeres, B van de Beld


Optimization of furfurylic alcohol/tannin ratio to improve the performance of biosourced thermoset resins for wood protection
2023 - IRG/WP 23-40994
This study concerns the chemical modification of wood with different ratios of tannin and furfuryl alcohol (FA) in the presence of maleic acid as catalyst. Tannins were used not only as cross-linking agents, but also as co-monomers to improve wood durability, while reducing the amount of FA used. Different aqueous formulations were prepared containing decreasing amount of FA (from 45.45% to 0%) an...
E Azadeh, A Pizzi, P Gérardin, C Gérardin-Charbonnier


Improving American Hardwoods Sustainability, Durability and Markets
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50378
The American hardwood industry, which dates back to the first European settlers, has a wealth of experience processing the native hardwoods of North America. The US hardwood resource is mainly located in the eastern United States, from Maine in the North to the Gulf of Mexico in the South and westwards to the Mississippi Valley. The USA has more temperate hardwood species than any other world regi...
D Brooks, M Snow


End-of-life options for engineered wood products / Treated timber in a circular economy
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50383
Australians are excellent consumers of products. These products ultimately end up as waste materials and need to go somewhere. Australia produces around 28 million tons of waste per year with around 50% currently ending up in landfill, including a significant amount of timber, engineered wood products (EWP’s), and preservative treated wood (PTW). Limited landfill capacity, increasing costs, and ...
H Brooke


Australian timber durability research needs
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50385
Australia was once a world leader in timber durability research, but prolonged disinvestment resulted in a gradual decline in capacity. Forest and Wood Products Australia recognized this problem and supported the development of the Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life to help reverse this decline and begin to educate the next generation of Australian researchers. The Centre is a collabor...
J J Morrell


Assessment of the condition of wooden mill in the area of Kovačevići in Bosnia and Herzegovina
2023 - IRG/WP 23-11030
An excellent example of cultural and technical heritage is almost 100 year old wooden mills near Cazin in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These mills played an important role, especially in times of Bosnian war (1992-95), when this region was cut off from electricity. The laboratory analysis revealed that the respective mill was made of chestnut (Castanea sativa) and oak (Quercus sp.) wood. The sufficient...
B Lesar, R Hasanagic, M Humar


Characterisation of fungal decay in cable car trestles in Svalbard
2023 - IRG/WP 23-11031
The Arctic will be strongly affected by climate change. In Svalbard the coal mining industry were established in the early 20th century. All man-made structures and sites dating before 1946 in Svalbard are protected by law and considered as cultural heritage. This included the massive cable car trestles that are constructed from untreated Norway spruce and mounted directly into the soil. We hereby...
G Alfredsen, L Ross, M Altgen, I A Yakovlev, A-C Flyen, M S Austigard, J Mattsson, N B Pedersen


Improvements of monitoring the effects of soil organisms on wood in fungal cellar tests
1996 - IRG/WP 96-20093
Accelerated testing the durability of preservative treated timber in a so called "fungal cellar" or "soil-bed" to evaluate its performance in ground contact is widespread practice. In order to obtain a more accurate and reproducible estimate of preservative performance, several institutes, among them the BAM in Berlin, have routinely carried out static bending tests in addition to visual examinati...
I Stephan, S Göller, D Rudolph


An aquaria test of the natural resistance against marine borers of some commercial timbers available in Australia
1996 - IRG/WP 96-10145
The natural resistance of the heartwood of 22 different timbers grown or commercially available in Australia was examined. Radiata pine sapwood both untreated, and treated with 5.4 kg/m³ CCA salt, was included for comparison. Small timber blocks were exposed for one year in tanks containing either Limnoria tripunctata or Lyrodus pedicellatus. Four softwood species tested were heavily attacked and...
L J Cookson


The effect of sapwood and heartwood differences on durability of short rotation teak wood
2022 - IRG/WP 22-10991
Short rotation teak has been developed to overcome the limited supply of long rotation teak. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sapwood and heartwood differences on durability of short rotation teak. The following basic properties were studied: extractive content, dimensional stability (volumetric swelling and water uptake), decay resistance, and termite resistance. The result...
R Martha, M Mubarok, F O Akong, B George, C Gérardin, S Dumarçay, I S Rahayu, I Batubara, W Darmawan, P Gérardin


Protection of Venetian pilings from marine borers
2022 - IRG/WP 22-10995
This keynote paper describes piling typology, i.e. Aids to navigation, Mooring and berthing and Pileworks. Furthermore, it describes damages to pilings and public tests on alternative materials and protection. Final remarks: Today, all the pole types admitted by the Memorandum of Understanding can be seen in the lagoon. Plastic poles are common for the mooring of small boats and as stilts in some...
D Tagliapietra


Evaluation of ecotoxicological effects of different coniferous wood treatments on two marine bioindicator species
2022 - IRG/WP 22-10999
Coniferous wood panels (Picea abies) were treated with two concentrations of copper-based impregnating agent to increase its durability in marine and brackish environment. In order to assess the environmental compatibility of the treatments a laboratory experiment was conducted with two marine invertebrate species: bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis and a gastropod Steromphala albida. The bioindica...
T Marčeta, N Nesto, I Guarneri, D Tagliapietra, V Moschino


Studies into the effect of soil type and soil layer on the in-ground decay of European beech
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20681
In this study, European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) specimens were exposed to three different soil types; Podsol (Podzol), Braunerde (Cambisol), and Pararendzina (Regosol), in adapted terrestrial microcosm (TMC) tests according to CEN/TS 15083-2 (2005). Soils were sampled (250 mm deep) from field sites and separated into their constituent layers to deliver three TMC setups; mineral soil layer only ...
B N Marais, S Kovacs, M Jansen, C Brischke


Combining MRI and X-ray CT to monitor fungal decay of plywood and OSB in a lab test
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20683
Bio-based building materials, such as wood and wood-engineered products, are susceptible to degradation by decay fungi. In-depth knowledge on the intricate material-fungus relationship as well as performance data for many bio-based building materials are still lacking, and especially knowledge on how a material’s structure and moisture properties affect the degradation process is missing. Althou...
L De Ligne, T Núñez Guitar, C Vanhove, J Van Acker, J Van den Bulcke


Copper-octanoate - a potential reference preservative replacement for CCA in field test standards?
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20688
Finding a CCA reference replacement for use in standardised test methods is of high priority since this chemical is being phased out and may in the near future be banned also for experimental and approval purposes. In this paper we assess the possibility to replace CCA reference preservative with an historical copper octanoate product. There is a huge amount of lab and field test data available fo...
R Ringman, M Westin, M Klamer, A Christof, F Friese


Using satellite-retrieved soil moisture data to model the decay risk of in-ground timber
2022 - IRG/WP 22-20689
Satellite-derived soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) was extracted for a 9 x 9 km point grid over Europe. The data was then used as input to a dose-response wood decay model based on terrestrial microcosm (TMC) tests. The resulting hazard map plotted dose as an indicator of in-ground wood decay based on differences in annual temperature and soil moisture characteristic...
P B van Niekerk, M Schönauer, B N Marais, C Brischke


Service trial of different materials exposed in jetties at Öresund. Progress report No. 5
2022 - IRG/WP 22-30764
This report contains results of the fifth inspection on the performance of different decking materials – preservative-treated wood, modified wood, natural durable wood, re-cycled plastics and wood-plastic composites (WPCs) - available on the market and exposed since 2013 (some since 2014 and 2016) by the City of Malmö in two jetties near the Øresund Bridge, south of central Malmö in Sweden. T...
J Jermer


Properties of Iron (II) Sulphate treated Norway Spruce
2022 - IRG/WP 22-30765
Exterior wood is exposed to various environmental factors that cause weathering. Weathering is important primarily from an aesthetic standpoint. However, not all parts of the building are equally susceptible to weathering. Parts exposed to moisture will discolour faster than protected parts, such as wood under roof overhangs. To achieve fast and uniform artificial greying, a surface treatment with...
B Lesar, M Humar, M Škamlec


Effect of nanoparticle impregnation on the biological durability of wood
2022 - IRG/WP 22-30772
This study evaluated the efficacy of five different nanoparticles (zinc-oxide, zinc-borate, silver, copper-oxide, copper-borate) applied with different concentrations against the brown rot Coniophora puteana and the white rot Coriolus versicolor. The generally effective nanoparticle treatments were the combinations containing borate in its chemical structure. However, only zinc-oxide and silver na...
M Bak, R Németh


Previous Page | Next Page