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Your search resulted in 341 documents. Displaying 25 entries per page.


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


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


Long service life or cascading? The environmental impact of maintenance of wood-based materials for building envelope and their recycling options
2018 - IRG/WP 18-50336
A major restraint in choosing bio-based materials (i.e. wood-based) for external use, is the lack of confidence that architects, designers and customers have toward these materials. In particular, the limit state of bio-based materials, which defines the frequency of maintenance operations, might be reached earlier for wood than for other materials (i.e. concrete). On the other hand, resource and ...
M Petrillo, J Sandak, P Grossi, A Kutnar, A


Is cascading of harvested wood products really an environmentally beneficial strategy in Finland and Norway?
2020 - IRG/WP 20-50364
The role of cascading wood waste in the bioeconomy is highlighted in the several strategic documents. The European Waste Framework Directive describes a waste hierarchy where re-use and recovery are considered more favourable options compared with energy recovery, and applies strict re-use and recycling targets to household waste and non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. It is not fully...
C A S Hill, G Alfredsen, M Hughes, L R Gobakken


Carbon footprint of a cross laminated timber building – Torvbraten school case study
2021 - IRG/WP 21-50366
Torvbråten school is a public school in Asker, Norway, that has reached many sustainability goals. The school was the second in Norway to have Nordic Swan Ecolabel and has a 60 % reduction in carbon footprint compared to the reference benchmark. The building is made of cross laminated timber (CLT) and extensive wood use in general. From a wood protection viewpoint, will this sustainability sustai...
L G F Tellnes, J K Naess, M R Hanssen, P-O Flate


The applicability of life cyle analysis and alternative methods in the wood preservation industry
1994 - IRG/WP 94-50023
In the Netherlands, several case studies have been performed using the life cycle analysis method (LCA). This type of research is aimed at an inventory and classification (sometimes including also evaluation) of the environmental impacts of a product, from the raw material to waste stage ("cradle to grave" approach). In a LCA each environmental impact is assessed in terms of, for example, mass of ...
P Esser, J Cramer


Reliability-based service life prediction methodology for assessment of water protection efficiency for coatings on wood
2003 - IRG/WP 03-20268
Assessment of water protection efficiency according to EN 927-5 has been shown to give significant differences in water absorption values for different types of coatings on wood. It is shown that the combination of EN 927-5 and an artificial weathering procedure gives more information regarding expected durability and long-term performance than a single measurement of water absorption on fresh, un...
J Ekstedt


Investigations on the life cycle and nutrition of Criocephalus rusticus L
1974 - IRG/WP 127
The longhorn beetle Criocephalus rusticus L or Arhopalus rusticus (L) is widely distributed in Europe and Asia. It attacks softwoods. The primary host trees are pines, ie freshly felled, unbarked logs, dying standing trees and stumps. After feeding under the bark the larvae enter the sapwood and also the heartwood. Timber to be used for building purposes may be rendered useless by their tunnelling...
H Kühne


Wharf-borer a threat to stored archaeological timbers
1992 - IRG/WP 92-1560
Increased interest in marine archaeology has occured in recent years. Stored waterlogged archaeological timbers have been shown to be degraded by physical and microbial agents. In recent years a new threat has been highlighted, namely the wharf-borer Nacerdes melanura (L.). The objective of this paper is to outline studies of the morphology, biology, life-history and carbohydrate digestion by this...
A J Pitman, E B G Jones, A M Jones, M Rule


A rearing procedure for the house longhorn beetle Hylotrupes bajulus L
1973 - IRG/WP 228
The technique practised at the Princes Risborough Laboratory for culturing Hylotrupes bajulus is described. It is modified from methods previously suggested by German workers. A protein and vitamin enriched wood diet to accelerate larval growth is employed and larvae are subsequently given a period of cool storage to induce pupation. Adults are confined in groups with prepared surfaces for egg lay...
R W Berry


In search of excellence - A necessary challenge
1990 - IRG/WP 3567
Consumerism and environmentalism are gaining much influence. At national and E.C.-level the policy conducted is based on prevention of pollution through "sound" wood preservatives. Supposing that "environmental friendly" products do not exist it is understood that "sound" products have least effect on the environment during their whole life cycle. In the past only the effectiveness was paramount, ...
G Rustenburg


Accelerated anti-termite laboratory tests, simulation of field conditions and assessment of results for service life
1994 - IRG/WP 94-20034
Termites are one of the most serious biodegrading agents in the tropics. Though some species of termites occur in the warmer temperate regions, only a few species can withstand the rigours of colder regions. Testing of termite resistance of material is done either by field tests or by accelerated laboratory tests. Field tests, though realistic to assess service life, are elaborate, take a long tim...
P K Sen-Sarma


CCA-treated Wood Disposed in Landfills and Life-cycle Trade-Offs With Waste-to-Energy and MSW Landfill Disposal
2005 - IRG/WP 05-50231
CCA-treated wood as a solid waste is managed in various ways throughout the world. Although some wood is combusted for the production of energy in the U.S., more often than not, CCA-treated wood is disposed in landfills. In other countries, wood, often including CCA-treated wood, is combusted for the production of energy. This paper is presented in two parts. Part I evaluates the impact of CCA-tre...
J Jambeck, K Weitz, T G Townsend, H M Solo-Gabriele


An assessment of soft rot in preservative-treated poles in two test sites and two network areas in New South Wales
2013 - IRG/WP 13-10801
This document presents an extended summary of recent investigations into soft rot attack of preservative treated power poles from the re-inspection of samples selected from two field sites and two in-service trials located in New South Wales, Australia. The in-ground sapwood of selected poles was assessed by probing and, after core sampling, by microscopy to determine the severity and extent of s...
W D Gardner, M A Powell, C Kirton


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


Visual assessment of longitudinal wheel timbers and assessing the feasibility of extending wheel timber service life in the UK railway network
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20651
Timber has been a versatile building material for centuries and during the start of the Railway Age in the nineteenth century it was in considerable demand for use in the railway network, particularly bridge building. Timber is still in service and widely used throughout the UK railway network. The resilience and favourable strength to weight ratio and its relative ease of fabrication make it an...
J R Williams


Utilising novel service life prediction methods for robust and precise Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC)
2023 - IRG/WP 23-50384
Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC) is one of the basic indicators for the assessment of sustainability and cost effectiveness in construction applications. Project WoodLCC was thus conceived to enable LCC through input from models for detailed service life planning of wooden components and buildings. The project is a continuation of the service life planning research conducted in Europe over the last three ...
P B van Niekerk, G Alfredsen, T Kalamees, R Modaresi, A Sandak, J Niklewski, C Brischke


Programme section 2, Test methodology and assessment
1997 - IRG/WP 97-20126
IRG Secretariat


How to Document the Performance of Super-Critical Treated Wood in above Ground Situations?
2005 - IRG/WP 05-20316
The paper presents practical experiences from the preparation of a new preservative treated wood product for introduction to the market. The product in question is Superwood™, which is treated with organic biocides using CO2 in a supercritical state as a solvent. The question is how to evaluate the performance of a new product such as Superwood™ in order to get an acceptance on the market a...
N Morsing, A H H Wong, F Imsgard, O Henriksen


Extending the useful life of creosoted electricity distribution poles in service
1993 - IRG/WP 93-50001-16
Creosoted transmission poles have provided good service over many decades in a whole range of environments. The use of save biocides for secondary treatments has the potential to extend the life of such poles. These techniques, together with a full understanding of the modes of failure, make it possible to establish new strategies to further improve the environmental benefits of treated wooden pol...
D J Dickinson, B Calver


Effect of a penta emulsion on the service life of Douglas fir, heartwood posts
1978 - IRG/WP 3112
C S Walters


Quantitative assessment of the condition of field specimens
1981 - IRG/WP 2154
Suggestions for a discussion on the desirability of an extension to the existing procedure of assessment of the condition of field specimens by adding more objective, reproducible methods in order to obtain earlier and more specific information than at present on the effect of biological attack on strength and other properties of the specimens as well as the time aspect....
H Friis-Hansen


Proposed methodology for the assessment of safety indexes
1990 - IRG/WP 3562
Safety Indexes (SI)s are developped on the same concept as Efficacy Indexes (EI)s: EIs are retentions of wood preservatives (percentages of the critical values "efficacy") which are presumed efficient for a given biological class of risk. In the same way, SIs are retentions of wood preservatives (percentages of the critical values "safety") which are taken as acceptable for human health and the ge...
G Ozanne


A new concept of oxalic acid biosynthesis in physiology of copper-tolerant brown-rot fungi
2001 - IRG/WP 01-10394
Recently, a wide variety of roles of oxalic acid (oxalate) in wood decay systems have been receiving much attention. Copper tolerance of wood-rotting basidiomycetes has been believed to be due to the detoxification of copper wood preservatives by oxalate produced by these fungi. However, biochemical mechanism of oxalate biosynthesis in relation to physiology of wood-rotting fungi has not been eluc...
E Munir, T Hattori, M Shimada


Inspection results of preservative treated stakes, maximum 33 years in field
1992 - IRG/WP 92-3690
Since in 1958, we have undertaken field experiments in Japan. For these field experiments, we used sapwoods of Japanese cedar called Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) because of majority of plantation forest soft wood species in Japan. For some preservatives, we added sapwood of Japanese beech called Buna (Fagus crenata), a main Japanese hard wood species. Dimensions of these specimens were 30 x 30 x 60...
K Suzuki, K Yamamoto, M Inoue, S Matsuoka


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