Wood Building Materials Research Articles

A dynamic fire risk assessment method for compact historic villages based on the improved FRAME

There are a large number of high-value heritage sites in the historic villages preserved in the mountainous areas of southern China. These sites are exposed to major fire risks due to their compact layout and wooden building materials. By improving the fire risk assessment method for engineering (FRAME), we proposed a dynamic fire risk assessment method for compact historic villages. On one hand, a balance between universality and pertinence was established regarding the assessment indexes and weighting system by integrating general factors with unique regional factors. On the other hand, a connecting link between prescriptive fire codes and performance-based design adjustments was established through the cyclic operation path of assessment-intervention-reassessment. Xiaozhai village, which has experienced serious fire incidents, was selected as an example. Its original fire risk, established fire interventions, actual fire results, and optimized fire protection plan were compared and analyzed to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the assessment method. This study reveals the correlation between various factors of the village and building fire risk. Among these factors, building proximity, traditional customs, and fire protection layout, which are not included in the original FRAME, have a significant impact on fire risk. The results of this study can serve as a reference for fire prevention in historic villages with similar characteristics worldwide. Additionally, the proposed methodology can provide insights into the development of fire risk assessment methods for various types of historical settlements, thus promoting the sustainable development of built heritage in these settlements.

Construction of hydrophobic HKUST-1 in wood with selective adsorption performance for toluene and moisture blends

The effect of moisture on the volatile organic compound (VOC) adsorption on biomass-derived metal–organic framework composites is significant in practical applications. In this study, wood-based metal organic frameworks (MOF199-W) and hydrophobic MOF199-W (HMOF199-W) were developed using HKUST-1 (MOF199) and long alkyl chains to investigate the adsorption performance of toluene and enhance the selectivity of adsorption under high humidity conditions. The results demonstrated that HKUST-1 could be anchored onto the surface of wood vessels and fibers through coordination with Cu2+, resulting in an improved surface area in comparison to natural wood. The toluene adsorption capacity of MOF199-W with a 20 % loading was comparable to that of an equivalent amount of MOF199, with adsorption capacities of 323.5 mg/g and 369.9 mg/g, respectively. Further, the Yoon-Nelson model was found to adequately describe the dynamic adsorption process. Following the introduction of long alkyl chains, MOF199 and MOF199-W were endowed with strong hydrophobic character (water contact angle of 107.0◦, 104.0◦, and water uptake of 30.5 mL/g, 55.3 mL/g). With the increase in humidity, the adsorption performance of MOF199 and MOF199-W for toluene sharply decreased, but HMOF199 and HMOF199-W still maintained the adsorption capacities at 304.7 mg/g and 226.7 mg/g, even under 80 % RH conditions. Therefore, HMOF199-W has shown great potential in wooden building materials with the ability for toluene capture under humid conditions.

Understanding substitution impacts of harvested wood and processing residues to mitigate climate change: A case of Chattogram, Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the role of harvested wood (e.g. wood products and associated processing residues) to mitigate climate change is less known and often ignored. This study aims to understand the substitution impacts of harvested wood products and associated processing residues in Chattogram city area, Bangladesh. Additionally, we also explored sellers' and users' perceptions towards the use of wood biomass and associated effects, with users’ level of satisfaction with using different categories of products of wood, bamboo, steel, and plastic. The study only considered sawn wood from sawmills to the wooden furniture and building materials, and associated residues, but excluded carbon in the forest ecosystem. A survey, using three different types of pre-tested questionnaires consisting of open and close-ended questions, was carried out in 36 sawmills, 62 timber merchants, and 55 furniture manufacturers or shops, with their owners or managers in Chattogram City Corporation area, Bangladesh. We used the general displacement factors of 0.5, 0.45, 1, and 1.3 tC tC−1 for processing residues, composite wood furniture, solid wood furniture, and building materials, respectively. The amount of wood products and associated residues and their avoided emissions due to substitution were presented in m3 industry−1 year−1 and Mg industry−1 year−1. Results revealed that the highest mean annual consumptions of timber (783.95 m3 industry−1 year−1) and processing residues (196.05 m3 industry−1 year−1) were in the sawmills and the lowest (60.56 and 0.66 m3 industry−1 year−1) in the furniture manufacturers. Altogether, the processing of round logs generated 36% residues of its mass from sawmilling to furniture manufacture. Sawn wood (of sawmills and timber merchants) consumed in the building houses produced the highest annual avoided emissions (1029.51 Mg CO2 industry−1 year−1). The development of efficient products with long lifespans, in addition to factors such as forest management, emissions, waste generation, and life cycle assessments of products likely play a significant role in determining the overall impact on displacement factors. The future study should focus on developing material flow analysis integrated with a life cycle assessment approach for various products for the construction and associated sectors, thus generating a country-specific displacement factor. The perception-based study documented that wood furniture and processing residues as bioenergy were perceived as a good substitute for non-wood furniture (e.g., steel, plastic) and fossil fuels (gas, oil) and thus lowering fossil emissions as wood products were perceived as user-and-environment-friendly and attractive. However, environmental awareness of both consumers and sellers about wood and bioenergy use and forest degradation is crucial for turning them into positive from neutral perceptions.

Ignition limits of pine wood building material under the coupling effects of thermal radiation and cross winds

The ignition of timber buildings in the context of wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires has emerged as a significant challenge amidst the backdrop of global climate change. However, to the best knowledge of the authors, little attention was paid to the ignition conditions of wood building materials in WUI fires especially in thermal-fluid coupling environments. This study experimentally investigated the smoldering and flaming ignition characteristics of wood under the coupling effects of thermal radiation and cross winds. Surface temperature, internal temperature, mass loss rates, and time to ignition of wood samples were measured to study their variation with the above factors and the threshold between smoldering and flaming ignition phenomena. The results showed that wood exhibited reduced susceptibility to flaming ignition under low radiant heat flux conditions, and the introduction of cross winds posed more challenges for flaming ignition. In addition, both the critical surface temperature and mass loss rate varied with radiant heat flux and cross-wind speeds, so it was not feasible to determine the occurrence of flaming ignition by any of the two factors directly. This is because the coupling effects of thermal radiation and cross winds would result in a competition between radiant heating and convective cooling on wood surfaces. In light of this fact, two dimensionless quantities, namely Damköhler number and heat transfer ratio, were introduced to distinguish between smoldering and flaming ignitions. Damköhler number was used as an indicator of the potential for gas-phase flaming ignition, while the heat transfer ratio, namely the ratio of convective heat loss to radiant heat flux, was used to measure the net thermal energy received by wood surfaces. It has been demonstrated that the two quantities were effective to distinguish between smoldering and flaming ignitions from the perspectives of gas and solid phases with 20–40 kW/m2 in radiant heat flux and 0–1.0 m/s in cross-wind speed. The data and theories disclosed in this study could help predict the ignition behaviors of timber buildings under thermal-fluid coupling conditions, thus providing useful guidance for WUI fire mitigation and control.

Antileakage performance of Schiff base-reinforced thermal energy storage wood for indoor temperature control

Thermal energy storage wood has been rapidly developed as a green and renewable energy-saving building material. In this study, bio-based Schiff bases (VF) were prepared from vanillin and furfurylamine via aldehyde–amine condensation and used as a small molecule fixative. Subsequently, VF and dodecylamine were mixed uniformly and impregnated into rubberwood under pressure, affording thermal energy storage wood (TESW-x%VF). The results revealed that TESW-x%VF exhibited adjustable enthalpy (41.67–88.23 J g−1) and room-temperature phase transition (25°C–27°C). Moreover, the addition of VF improved the antileakage performance of TESW. According to density functional theory calculations, this is because the adsorption energy between VF and dodecylamine molecules has increased by 3–8 times compared to dodecylamine molecules. The above results provide a solution for the leakage issue associated with organic phase-change materials and aid in the future development of energy-saving wood building materials, which also improves the high-value utilization of chemical components in agricultural and forestry crops.

The Effect of Wood Species and Laminae Composition on the Properties of Cross-Laminated Beam Made from Community Forest Wood

Community forests offer diverse wood species and quantities, potentially meeting the increasing demand for wood-building materials driven by the green building concept. The diverse species have varied specific gravity. Combining wood species and cross-lamination engineering could improve the strength and dimensional stability of low-density and medium-density wood from community forests. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the effect of wood species and laminae composition on the properties of 5-ply cross-laminated beams (CLB). The 5-ply CLB was made in 5 cm x 5 cm x 112 cm with 1 cm laminae thickness. The species used were sengon, jabon, and mahogany, with acacia as enforcement. This research also compared homogeneous and heterogeneous laminae composition. The results showed that wood species and laminae composition significantly affect the mechanical properties. Heterogeneous compositions had higher mechanical properties than homogeneous compositions. The delamination test revealed that the CLB had high water resistance on cold and hot immersion even though the beams used up to three wood species.

Carbon Assessment of a Wooden Single-Family Building—Focusing on Re-Used Building Products

Previous research has shown a lack of studies with comparisons between primary (virgin) and secondary (re-used) building materials, and their embodied emissions. The creation of different scenarios comparing the environmental impact of virgin vs. re-used materials is also motivated by the scarcity of raw materials in the world and the emergency of mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings. The aim of this study was to investigate scenarios, including new vs. re-used building products, applying the LCA method for a wooden single-family building. The findings showed a 23% reduction potential for total released (positive) CO2e when comparing the Reference scenario with Scenario I, using re-used wooden-based materials. Further, Scenario II, using all re-used building materials except for installations, showed a 59% CO2e reduction potential compared to the Reference scenario. Finally, Scenario III, which assumes all re-used building products, showed a 92% decreased global warming potential (GWP) impact compared to the Reference scenario. However, when including biogenic carbon and benefits (A5 and D module), the Reference scenario, based on newly produced wooden building materials, has the largest negative GHG emissions. It can be concluded that the re-use of building products leads to significant carbon savings compared to using new building products.

MATERIAL INVENTORY INFORMATION SYSTEM AT UD. ALAM RAYA WEB-BASED USING THE WATERFALL METHOD

UD. Alam Raya is a trading business engaged in the sale of building materials. UD. Alam Raya provides various types of building materials such as wood, nails, cement, iron, electrical tools, pipes, glue, and other building materials. In processing inventory and finances are still not computerized. Recording of sales transactions and purchases of goods is still done manually on notes and large sheets of paper grouped by transaction date. Recording on paper media is less effective because when the paper is exposed to water, the writing on it also fades, hindering the process of making financial reports. Based on these problems, a computerized building material inventory information system is needed in order to facilitate sales and purchase data processing as well as financial reports at UD. universe. This study uses qualitative research methods and the waterfall software development method, as well as the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) programming language using the CodeIgniter framework. This research succeeded in designing and creating a building material inventory information system at UD. universe. The benefit of this building material inventory information system is that it makes it easier to make purchase reports, sales reports, and financial reports at UD. universe

The Effect of Wooden Building Materials on the Indoor Air Quality of Houses

This work focuses on researching wood as a low-emitting building material. Many studies showed that by regulating the emission of adverse chemicals from pressed wood products, they could be recycled as low-emitting materials. The presented case study, shows the measurements of the indoor air quality in a passive, low-energy, wooden, light frame house. Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and formaldehyde were measured and compared with data from other case studies made in this subject and with the current Hungarian and international regulations of adverse chemicals. The main VOC materials which concentrations were significant in all measurements were terpenes (limonene, alpha-pinene, 3-carene), aliphatic-hydrocarbons and aldehydes (acetic acid, 2-Methoxy-1-ethylmethyl acetate). The comparison showed that the concentrations of benzene, toluene, naphthalene, formaldehyde, and styrene were not deviant from the average values measured by other case studies. The observations showed that the main influencing factors of indoor air quality were the changes in indoor temperature, relative humidity, air exchange rate, and human activities. The conclusion is that the wooden materials applied in the house are low-emitting materials and do not pose a health risk for people.

Fundamentals of Construction Materials and Types of Building Using WPM Method

Building materials are construction materials. Natural resources such as branches, wood, clay, pebbles, and sand can all be used to build. Many naturally occurring compounds and some more and some less artificial man-made items are in use. Building materials are called from a range of sites and quarried and mined as jio goods. Must find new resources because the demand to cling to what is now available is expanding along with the world's population. Concrete has a long and illustrious history, but adobe bricks, stone, and clay were the primary building materials used throughout history. These products are still in demand, and any more quarry for their specific extractive industries in the same area causes issues. this is a list of construction supplies. Buildings and structures produce several types of building materials that are employed in the construction sector. Construction is used for projects to specify materials and processes, and project managers' materials and goods are utilized in this category by architects and construction. Blockwork, typically wood building materials, and cold, rolled steel frame are all considered modern construction techniques as opposed to slow ones. There are several applications for various building materials; as a result, you should always check with the manufacturer to be sure a product is good for your needs. Around the world, almost 11,000 new structures are constructed each day. Buildings, sidewalks, and skyscrapers the first being undersea constructions, mines, and bridges for building products, numerous structures up to various construction are used. This page discusses the various types of construction materials used in construction. A hotel and residential complex in midrice the trust is now in motion. Supported by types and earth steel wallers around the excavation the pile also holds the steel sheet. The equipment enters, and the image travels down the earth's curve before leaving the spot. On the right, is a large backhoe from the previous structure there following the ancient mounds around digging continues but pressure-painted setting up the concrete pile legs what is happening, in the movie, better-completed piles are visible in the nearby center and the far corners. Piledrivers in large groups work. Strengthening of columns and concrete pile caps construction is underway on an excavation in the middle of the center. A well-liked technique for multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is the weighted product model (WPM). The weighted sum model is comparable to this (WSM). The primary distinction is that multiplication is used as the primary mathematical operation rather than addition. The decision-making model by multiplication in linking an attribute rating includes the Weighted Product (WP) technique. When attributes are multiplied, weight for attributes acts as a positive rank, whereas attribute rating acts as a negative rank for the cost attribute. Materials, Construction equipment, Labor, Finance, Enabling Expenses, Admin Expenses, Surplus Building, Roads, Bridges, Dams, Power, Railway, Mineral Plant, Transmission the result it is seen that Dams is got the first rank where as is the building is having the lowest rank. Dams is ranked first and industrial Building is ranked lowest.

A Novel Approach to Discovering Hygrothermal Transfer Patterns in Wooden Building Exterior Walls

To maintain the life of building materials, it is critical to understand the hygrothermal transfer mechanisms (HTM) between the walls and the layers inside the walls. Due to the extreme instability of weather data, the actual data models of the HTM—the data being collected for actual buildings using modern sensor technologies—would appear to be a great difference from any theoretical models, in particular, for wood building materials. In this paper, we aim to consider a variety of data analysis tools for hygrothermal transfer features. A novel approach for peak and valley detection is proposed based on the discrete differentiation of the original data. Not to be limited to the measure of peak and valley delays for HTM, we propose a cross-correlation analysis to obtain the general delay between two daily time series, which seems to be representative of the delay in the daily time series. Furthermore, the seasonal pattern of the hygrothermal transfer combined with the correlation analysis reveals a reasonable relationship between the delays and the indoor and outdoor climates.

A Contemporary House Proposal: Structural Analysis of Wood and Steel Bungalows

The housing typologies that meet shelter and other basic needs are diverse, and bungalows are one of them. These buildings are generally single-story and mostly use wooden building materials. This paper introduces a new construction technique using steel, which is more durable than typical wooden bungalow houses. This design aimed to create a new building stock based on the logic of mass production, where modular steel bars can be prefabricated and transported to the construction site. An architectural design with a steel construction instead of a wooden one and a hexagonal plan instead of a rectangular one was developed. Structures designed with wooden and steel materials were compared using the structural analysis method. Structural analysis of the construction designs using wood and S235 steel grade was performed with the SAP2000 software. The structures were evaluated according to displacement, modal analysis periods, and self-weight, and their static suitability was tested. This new architectural design was developed because steel can maintain its strength for a long time compared to wood and has a higher modulus of elasticity. The results showed that wood and steel materials exhibit similar behavior under the same cross-sections, but the steel structure has come to the forefront as it is lighter than wood in terms of self-weight.

Against the grain: environmental laws, local botanical knowledge, and housing access in Rio de Janeiro

This article considers how the construction practices of marginalized communities in Rio de Janeiro link the provision of essential housing to distant forest environments and markets for wood building materials. As elsewhere in Brazil, many families without access to real estate markets have built their own homes using locally available materials, a right protected by the 1988 Constitution and federal law. Today, these houses are typically built from reinforced concrete and clay bricks and finished with a roof of clay tile or cheaper fiber-cement corrugate. Production and sale of fiber-cement, which contains asbestos, were restricted by Rio de Janeiro State law in 2001 and ruled unconstitutional by Brazil’s Supreme Court in 2017. But little attention has been given to the human and environmental health effects of other building materials. This article examines the timber frame to which roof tiles are affixed. Maçaranduba is the main wood used in roof construction and is the most traded wood in Brazil, with production practices linked to environmental and social violence. Brazil’s laws presently subsidize plantation-grown pine and eucalyptus as “sustainable” alternatives to native hardwoods. The chemical treatments commonly applied to render these woods resistant to decay, however, contain potent environmental toxins. Moreover, the degree to which builders of essential housing actually use these products is unstudied. We argue that legislation has moved “against the grain” or without close attention to the botanical knowledge expressed in vernacular architectures and the needs of marginalized socio-ecologies intimately linked through the production of essential housing.

Carbon footprint assessment of a wood multi-residential building considering biogenic carbon

Wood and other bio-based building materials are often perceived as a good choice from a climate mitigation perspective. This article compares the life cycle assessment of the same multi-residential building from the perspective of 16 countries participating in the international project Annex 72 of the International Energy Agency to determine the effects of different datasets and methods of accounting for biogenic carbon in wood construction. Three assessment methods are herein considered: two recognized in the standards (the so-called 0/0 method and −1/+1 method) and a variation of the latter (−1/+1* method) used in Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand. The 0/0 method considers neither fixation in the production stage nor releases of biogenic carbon at the end of a wood product's life. In contrast, the −1/+1 method accounts for the fixation of biogenic carbon in the production stage and its release in the end-of-life stage, irrespective of the disposal scenario (recycling, incineration or landfill). The −1/+1 method assumes that landfills offer only a temporary sequestration of carbon. In the −1/+1* variation, landfills and recycling are considered a partly permanent sequestration of biogenic carbon and thus fewer emissions are accounted for in the end-of-life stage. We examine the variability of the calculated life cycle-based greenhouse gas emissions calculated for a case study building by each participating country, within the same assessment method and across the methods. The results vary substantially. The main reasons for deviations are whether or not landfills and recycling are considered a partly permanent sequestration of biogenic carbon and a mismatch in the biogenic carbon balance. Our findings support the need for further research and to develop practical guidelines to harmonize life cycle assessment methods of buildings with bio-based materials.

Oxidation of cellulose molecules toward delignified oxidated hot-pressed wood with improved mechanical properties

Wooden building materials have advantages in terms of biodegradability, non-toxicity, pollution-free and recycling. Currently, applications of natural wood are extremely limited because of low density, low strength and toughness. Therefore, we reported an effective modification strategy with nano-scale cellulose nanofibrils design to prepare a synergistically enhanced cellulosic material. Via three steps: i) the secondary alcohol hydroxyl groups in C2, C3 position were cut; ii) oxidize the hydroxyl group at C2, C3 position to achieve dialdehyde cellulose; and iii) oxidized again to obtain dicarboxylic cellulose. Subsequently, thanks to the regulation of the average moisture content, the moisture content in the wood surface and subsurface increased in a short time. The wood softening layer contributes to the hotpressing treatment of the wood. The mechanical properties and dimensionality have been greatly improved. The obtained delignified oxidated hot-pressed wood with 0.55 mmol/g carboxyl group content demonstrates excellent strength of 328.8 ± 7.43 MPa and Young's modulus of 8.1 ± 0.14 GPa, which is twice than that of natural wood. Delignified oxidated hot-pressed wood also shows exceptional toughness of 8.3 ± 0.28 MJ/m3. Other than that, the shore hardness indicates 0.55 mmol/g carboxylic group, which could increase the hardness at the wood surface hardness to 72.5 ± 4.29°.

Mildew-Resistant Wood Building Materials with Titanium Oxide Nanosheet

Mildew-Resistant Wood Building Materials with Titanium Oxide Nanosheet

Visualization of Fungi During Wood Colonization and Decomposition by Microscopy: From Light to Electron Microscopy.

Fungi are the principal decomposers of wood together with xylophage insects and, as such, have a central role in nutrient cycling of forest ecosystems. These fungi are also envisaged as promising tools for converting wood and waste of wood industries into chemicals, as alternative to fossil chemicals. At the same time, wood decomposers pose a threat to wooden building materials and are intensively fought. As a consequence, intense researches have been conducted over the past 50years to identify the fungi responsible for wood decomposition, the mechanisms by which they do so, the wood properties involved in resistance or sensitivity to attacks and ways to preserve woods. Many tools are now available to study fungal colonization of wood, including: "omics" techniques, enzymatic assays, spectrometry, etc. However, all these approaches provide bulk information and the data obtained by these methods contain no information on the localization of fungi, the stage of decomposition of the wood and the potential interactions between microorganisms. In these regards, microscopy approaches provide complementary information that can strengthen conclusions. The present chapter describes a diverse range of microscopy approaches, from simple bench light microscopy to confocal and electron microscopies, to shed light on the way fungi colonize wood tissues.

Axial Compression Behaviors of Columns Fabricated from Bamboo Oriented Strand Boards

Due to the low specific strength of bamboo oriented strand boards compared with the commonly used wooden building materials, reasonable and novel cross-section designs of bamboo columns fabricated from bamboo oriented strand boards as structural members were investigated. An axial compression experiment was carried out on full-scale bamboo columns to characterize the ultimate behaviors under a concentric load. The ultimate bearing capacities of solid, hollow and five-core columns of the same height were not obviously different from each other. The columns with a larger slenderness ratio showed lower ultimate loads and higher axial deflections. The short columns experienced failure due to material crushing, and the long columns experienced a combination of material crushing and inelastic buckling. The empirical equations for predicting the ultimate bearing capacity for wooden columns showed applicability for bamboo columns. Non-linear finite element modeling analyses were carried out to validate the experimental results, and a satisfactory agreement was found in the failure modes and ultimate bearing capacity.

Characterization and Prediction of Physical Properties of Luanta Fir Wood with Vacuum Hydrothermal Treatment.

This study used the luanta fir (Cunninghamia konishii Hayata) wood, one of the most used wood construction and building materials in Taiwan, as specimens to examine the impact of different conditions of vacuum hydrothermal (VH) treatment on the physical properties of this wood. A prediction model for these properties was created using a nondestructive spectroscopy technique. The test results revealed that the mass loss, moisture exclusion efficiency, anti-swelling efficiency, color difference, and surface contact angle of the VH-treated wood all increased under increasing heat treatment temperature and time. Moreover, the use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in creating the prediction model for the physical properties of the VH-treated luanta fir wood revealed that the ratios of performance to deviation (RPD) for mass loss, equilibrium moisture content, and color difference were all above 2.5, indicating a high prediction accuracy. These results suggested that an NIR spectrometer can serve as a useful instrument for the accurate prediction of the physical properties or for controlling the quality of VH-treated wood.

Mechanical properties of PVC-based wood–plastic composites effected by temperature

Compared with traditional wooden building materials, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based wood–plastic composites have advantages of good weather resistance, easy processing capability, energy conservation, and environmental protection and have been popular and widely used in the field of civil construction and garden engineering in recent years. Due to the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient between its component materials, the stress will accumulate in the wood–plastic composites (WPCs) when the temperature changes, which will affect the mechanical properties of the material and structure. In order to explore the changes in mechanical properties of WPCs under different temperatures and achieve a safe and controllable design, the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method was used in this study to measure the glass transition temperature of the WPC between 78.45°C and 88.30°C, and the glass transition temperature (Tg) was about 83.54°C. The tensile, compressive, and bending mechanical property tests of PVC-based wood–plastic composite materials under different temperatures were carried out in the ambient temperature chamber to obtain the failure characteristics, the load–displacement curve, and the influence of temperature on their mechanical properties.