Gluability of thermally modified beech (Fagus silvatica L.) and birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) wood

Abstract

One of the main disadvantages of wood is hygroscopicity resulting from its polar character. The sorption–desorption of water causes unwanted swelling and shrinkage in wood. Thermal modification substantially reduces this inconvenient feature. Unfortunately, the same chemical changes that reduce water sorption alter the polar character of the material and result in poorer wetting of thermally treated wood by waterborne adhesives. Gluability of thermally modified beech (Fagus silvatica L.) and birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) wood with two commercial amino resins, melamine–urea–formaldehyde (MUF) and melamine–formaldehyde (MF), and a two-component polyurethane (PUR) adhesive was investigated. Both wood species were modified according to two temperature regimes: 160°C and 190°C. Shear strengths of the joints were then determined according to EN 205:2003 standard. The results showed that thermally modified beech and birch wood can be effectively glued not only with commercially available PUR adhesives, but also with aqueous MF and MUF resins. The resultant shear strengths of the joints were limited by the strength of the thermally modified substrate.     

Strength performance of mortise and loose-tenon furniture joints under uniaxial bending moment

We determined the effects of adhesive type and loose tenon dimensions （length and thickness） on bending strength of T-shaped mor- tise and loose-tenon joints. Polyvinyl acetate （PVAc） and two-component polyurethane （PU） adhesives were used to construct joint specimens. The bending moment capacity of joints increased significantly with increased length and thickness of the loose tenon. Bending moment capacity of joints constructed with PU adhesive was approximately 13% higher than for joints constructed with PVAc adhesive. We developed a predictive equation as a function of adhesive type and loose tenon dimensions to estimate the strength of the joints constructed of oriental beech （Fagus orientalis L.） under uniaxial bending load.     

Shear fracture characterization of green-glued polyurethane wood adhesive bonds at various moisture and gluing conditions

Abstract

The shear fracture properties of green-glued one-component polyurethane (PUR) wood adhesive bonds subjected to kiln drying were investigated. The local shear strength and fracture energy of the wood adhesive bonds were determined from experimentally recorded complete shear stress versus deformation curves of the bond line. A stable test set-up and small specimens that were anti-symmetrically loaded were used in order to get a uniform and pure state of shear stress. Different moisture contents (MCs) and pressing times were investigated. The fracture properties of conventionally dry-glued wood adhesive bonds and of solid wood were used as reference. The results show that the fracture energy of green-glued bonds with PUR adhesive is dependent on the MC of wood and on the pressing time. The same fracture energy and strength can be obtained by green gluing as by dry gluing, but there seems to exist a maximum MC of sapwood, in the range between 78% and 160%, and a minimum pressing time, in the range between 3 h and 48 h, for which it can be achieved. Both dry- and green-glued polyurethane adhesive bonds were more ductile than solid wood.     

Shear strength of furfurylated,N-methylol melamine and thermally modified wood bonded with three conventional adhesives

The shear strength of furfurylated, N-methylol melamine (NMM) and thermally modified wood bonded with emulsion polymer isocyanate, polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), and polyurethane (PU) adhesives was examined. Furfurylation and NMM modification of Scots pine had a significant negative effect on the bonding strength with all adhesives irrespective of the treatment intensity. The obtained low-shear strength values were related to the brittle nature of the wood after modifications rather to the failure of the bondline. PVAc showed a better bonding performance with both furfurylated and NMM modified wood while the combination of furfurylated wood and PU gave the highest reduction in bonding strength (47–51%). Shear strength also decreased significantly after thermal modification in both Scots pine (36–56%) and beech (34–48%) with all adhesives. With the exception of thermally modified beech samples bonded with PU, bondline was found to be the weakest link in thermally modified wood as it was revealed by the wood failure surfaces. Bondline thickness and effective penetration of adhesives did not relate to the shear strength of all modified wood materials. The lower shear strength of modified wood could be attributed to other factors, such as the reduced chemical bonding or mechanical interlocking of adhesives, and the reduced strength of brittle modified wood substrate.     

两种常温固化木材胶粘剂胶接强度分析

对两种木材用常温固化胶粘剂--单宁-甲醛胶粘剂和聚氨酯胶粘剂胶接的速生杨木的静态剪切强度进行了测试与分析.研究结果表明,以速生杨I-72为被胶接对象,自制的双组分型单宁胶压缩剪切强度范围为8.08～8.92MPa,但木破率较低,要满足日本集成材JAS标准中用胶规定,需进一步研究改进.相比较而言,聚氨酯胶粘剂的胶接强度较高,其压缩剪切强度值均在9.8MPa以上,木破率在75%以上,能够满足日本集成材JAS标准中用胶的规定.     

Detection of incipient decay in tree stems with sonic tomography after wounding and fungal inoculation

Picus^® acoustic tomography was used to map incipient stages of fungal decay in the sapwood of standing Douglas fir, beech, oak, and sycamore trees 2, 16, and 27 months after wounding and artificial inoculation with brown-, soft-, and white-rot decay fungi. Some wood properties were additionally measured before (velocity of sound) and after (moisture content, weight loss, and density of sound, discoloured and/or decayed wood) tree felling (28 months). With the exception of Trametes versicolor in sycamore, wood decay was not evident from the tomograms in any host-fungus combination. In comparison to measurements after two months, the device recorded a reduction in sound velocity in some host-fungus combinations after 16 and 27 months. In beech, there was a significant reduction in sound velocity after inoculation with Ganoderma applanatum, Kretzschmaria deusta, and Trametes versicolor. Similarly, a reduction in sound velocity was recorded in sycamore inoculated with Kretzschmaria deusta and Trametes versicolor. In all these combinations, losses in wood weight and wood density were also found. Results showed that the detection of incipient fungal decay at the periphery of tree stems needs to be improved such that tomograms of the Picus^® acoustic tomograph are capable of identifying decay progressing from the sapwood inwards.     

Effect of knife wear on finger-joint strength of silver fir (Abies alba) wood

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the effect of knife wear, as measured in hours of use, on the finger-joint strength of silver fir wood (Abies alba), bonded with polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) adhesives. Wood samples were collected after 1, 32 and 64 h of knife wear. Results showed that as knife wear increased, bending strength or modulus of rupture (MOR) of the finger-jointed samples was reduced by 11.1% (PVAc) to 21.2% (PU) after 32 h of knife wear, and by 19.6% (PVAc) to 27.6% (PU) after 64 h of knife wear, whereas modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the finger-jointed samples was reduced by 10.5% (PVAc) to 12.5% (PU) after 32 h of knife wear, and by 11.7% (PVAc) to 10.0% (PU) after 64 h of knife wear. Tension strength of the finger-jointed samples was reduced by 2.1% (PVAc) to 1.5% (PU) after 32 h of knife wear, and by 5.4% (PVAc) to 16.0% (PU) after 64 h of knife wear.     

Green gluing of oak wood (Quercus conferta L.) with a one-component polyurethane adhesive

Abstract

This research work presents a study on the properties of finger jointing green oak wood (Quercus conferta L.) using a one-component polyurethane adhesive. The effect of finger-joint orientation (vertical or horizontal fingers) was also examined. In general, the results from the measurements of modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity of green-glued finger-jointed specimens indicated that the green gluing of a high-density species such as oak wood is feasible.     

Adhesive penetration in beech wood: experiments

A study with synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) of PUR, PVAc, and UF adhesive bond lines in beech wood, bonded under various growth ring angles, is presented. The bond line morphologies and the adhesive penetration into the wood structure were evaluated after determining the hardening characteristics of the adhesives. Distinct bond line imperfections were found for the different adhesive systems. To describe the adhesive distribution inside the bond line, the saturation of the pore space instead of the commonly used maximum penetration depth seems to be adequate.     

The single tree-based stand simulator SILVA: construction,application and evaluation

Single tree forest growth simulators have proven to be very flexible tools for predicting forest growth. They are commonly applied in the United States but they are rarely used in European forest management yet. One of the few exceptions is the simulator SILVA, which is presented in this paper. The underlying equations of this simulator are developed from a set of more than 155,000 tree observations, including the species Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl.). These basic model equations are presented together with respective parameter values, derived from the aforesaid data set.The benefits of SILVA for forest practice, research, and education are demonstrated with three exemplary applications. Evaluation in terms of biological plausibility, validation, and practical use of the implemented software is presented, which shows that: (1) biological principles could be represented without explicitly being implemented, and (2) the simulation results are very close to independent observations as far as the range of parameterized site conditions is not exceeded. Furthermore, possible implications of changing conditions or an application of the model across a wider geographical range are discussed with special reference to the ongoing process of parameterization.     

高温热处理木材胶合性能的研究

笔者研究了桦木、落叶松和樟子松高温热处理材的胶合性能,并与常规干燥材进行了对比。测试结果表明木材的胶合剪切强度与所用的胶黏剂有关,聚氨酯胶合的三个树种木材的剪切强度普遍大于白乳胶胶合的木材。无论是室内用的白乳胶或室外木结构用的聚氨酯胶都能与三个树种的高温热处理材很好地胶合,胶合试件的浸渍剥离率或煮沸剥离率皆为零。木材经高温热处理后,其剪切强度均有不同程度的降低,阔叶材桦木下降幅度最大,针叶材落叶松下降幅度最小。     

Decay development in living sapwood of coniferous and deciduous trees inoculated with six wood decay fungi

Development of decay and/or discoloration was assessed in the functional sapwood of one coniferous and three deciduous trees after wounding and artificial inoculation with six wood decay fungi. Living stems of mature Douglas fir, beech, oak, and sycamore trees were wounded in spring 2002 and immediately inoculated with brown, white, and soft rot fungi. Extent of discoloration and decay, wood weight loss, and total phenols in the reaction zone (zone of active response at a dynamic interface between living sapwood and wood colonized by decay fungi) were assessed 16 and 28 months after inoculation.     

Tensile strength of softwood butt end joints. Part 1: Effect of grain angle on adhesive bond strength

Abstract

To study the effect of grain angle on the adhesive bond strength in wood, three-part Norway spruce wood specimens were bonded and tested in tension. The two axially orientated outer parts of the specimens were joined with the middle part by means of three adhesives typically used for load-bearing constructions, i.e. one-component polyurethane (PUR), melamine–urea–formaldehyde (MUF) and phenol–resorcinol–formaldehyde (PRF). The grain angle of the middle part was varied from 0° (end grain to end grain) to 90° (flat grain to end grain) in incremental steps of 10°. In general, PRF- and MUF-bonded samples exhibited highest tensile strength at end grain to end grain orientation of the three parts, while specimens bonded with PUR showed only 25% of the strength measured for PRF and MUF, respectively. At high grain angles (90°) all specimens showed similar strength values in the range of 30% of maximum strength of MUF- and PRF-bonded specimens. To explain the changing strength levels at different grain angle a composite failure criterion was applied.     

Decaying wood and tree regeneration in the Acadian Forest of Maine,USA

We examined the effect of management history on the availability of decayed downed wood and the use of downed wood as a regeneration substrate in mixed-species stands in the Acadian Forest of Maine. Regeneration of red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.), balsam fir (Abies balsamea L. Mill), and red maple (Acer rubrum L.) was quantified. Treatments included variants of selection cutting, commercial clearcutting (unregulated harvesting), and no harvesting for >50 years (reference). Area of wood substrate (wood ≥ Decay Class III and ≥10 cm on at least one end) was less in the commercial clearcut than in the reference; other treatments were not differentiated. Spruce and hemlock seedlings were found at higher densities on wood than paired forest floor plots of equal area, regardless of treatment. Conversely, fir and maple were less abundant on wood than forest floor plots in reference and selection treatments, but more or equally abundant on wood than forest floor plots in the commercial clearcut. These findings suggest that silvicultural treatment affects both the availability of decayed downed wood and seedling-substrate relationships, and that forest management in the Acadian Region should consider availability of downed woody material.     

Measuring interfacial stiffness of adhesively bonded wood

Adhesive bond line stiffness is an important property that plays a significant role in the properties of wood composites, but is typically ignored by methods used for characterizing adhesive quality. This paper proposes a new test method that can measure effective bond line stiffness. The experiments measured the global stiffness of double-lap shear specimens and then calculated an adhesive stiffness property using shear-lag analysis of each specimen’s specific geometry and layer properties. Experiments were done for phenol formaldehyde (PF) and polyvinyl acetate (PVA) bonding wood strands of hybrid poplar and densified hybrid poplar. The stiffness of PF bond lines was an order of magnitude higher than PVA bond lines, and both were affected by the amount of adhesive coverage. The bond line stiffness with densified wood was similar to, or higher than undensified wood despite the lack of penetration of resin into the densified strands.     

Tree spatial patterns of Abies alba and Fagus sylvatica in the Western Carpathians over 30 years

The decline of Abies alba (fir) in natural fir–beech forests in Europe has fascinated scientists for over a century. During this period, Fagus sylvatica (beech) became the dominant species in this forest type. We hypothesised that (1) the success of beech over fir is significantly connected with the fact that beech suffers less than fir from the presence of conspecific neighbours; that (2) shade tolerance is not a factor which favours beech over fir; and that (3) this is due to a significantly reduced proportion of litter treethrow mounds with suitable conditions for the successful regeneration of fir. We investigated these hypotheses by means of tree spatial pattern analysis. Eight rectangular plots (2–8 ha) were analysed in mountain fir–beech forests of the Outer Western Carpathians, Czech Republic. Various types of the pair correlation function and L function were used to describe the tree density variability of trees with DBH ≥10 cm. The analyses were carried out on datasets from the 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. Our results suggest that negative density dependence is not responsible for the current decline of fir. It seems that a higher shade tolerance of the advanced regeneration could be one of the factors which favour beech over fir. It is evident that fir trees have a markedly stronger positive association to mounds than beech trees.     

提高杨木线性振动摩擦焊接胶合性能的研究

研究了杨木线性振动摩擦焊接的干剪切强度、湿剪切强度和木破率。为提高杨木摩擦焊接的湿剪切强度与木破率,采用表面氧化、表面磺化以及表面涂覆的方式处理杨木板材,再经线性振动摩擦焊接进行黏合,使用万能力学试验机测得其剪切强度,对比表面处理前后剪切强度的变化,并利用傅里叶红外光谱分析了其表面处理前后基材和摩擦焊接层的化学基团变化情况,对胶合性能的变化做出解释。研究结果表明:杨木经过表面氧化磺化涂覆醋酸锌处理后,摩擦焊接层的干剪切强度为5.41 MPa,木破率为63%,与未处理的杨木相比,分别提高了48.22%和96.88%;湿剪切强度从0提高到1.34 MPa;摩擦焊接时厚度损失减少了46.4%。杨木分别经过表面氧化和表面磺化处理后,摩擦焊接层的干剪切强度仅为3.45和4.10 MPa,木破率为28%和42%,湿剪切强度为0.76和0.96 MPa。摩擦焊接层的红外光谱分析表明,经表面氧化磺化涂覆醋酸锌处理后,杨木中的纤维素和半纤维素分解,使木质素的相对含量有所增加,且活化了杨木中的—OH,与醋酸锌生成多醚,消耗了亲水性的—OH。     

Tensile strength of softwood butt end joints. Part 2: Improvement of bond strength by a hydroxymethylated resorcinol primer

Abstract

In a previous study it was shown that the mechanical stability of an end-grain joint bonded with a one-component polyurethane adhesive (PUR) was insufficient compared with melamine–urea–formaldehyde and phenol–resorcinol–formaldehyde bonding. Based on this, the aim of this study was to improve the mechanical stability of the end-grain joint by means of a hydroxymethylated resorcinol (HMR) primer and by increasing the spreading quantity. To study the effect of HMR and the increased spreading quantity on the adhesive bond strength of end-grain to end-grain-bonded wood samples, three-part Norway spruce wood specimens were tested in tension. Before bonding, each end-grain surface was treated with an aqueous solution of HMR. The two axially orientated outer parts of the specimens were jointed with the middle part using a PUR adhesive. Compared with untreated, i.e. non-primed samples, the tensile strength of HMR-treated specimens was more than doubled. Furthermore, a positive effect of increased adhesive spread was shown for untreated PUR-bonded samples. An increase in adhesive spread by a factor of 1.6 led to an improvement in tensile strength by a factor of about 2.6.     

ACQ防腐处理对马尾松木材胶合强度的影响研究

采用铜氨(胺)季铵盐(ACQ-D)防腐剂处理马尾松木材,以水性高分子异氰酸酯(API)、聚氨酯(PUR)和间苯二酚-苯酚-甲醛树脂(RPF)为胶黏剂制备防腐材胶合试样,研究胶黏剂种类和防腐剂处理浓度对马尾松胶合强度的影响。结果表明:API、PUR、RPF适用于ACQ处理马尾松的胶合,平均剪切强度和木破率均达到GB/T 26899—2011《结构用集成材》要求。胶黏剂种类对防腐材胶合强度有显著影响,表现为PUR和RPF的剪切强度优于API。与未处理材相比,ACQ处理对API胶合有负面影响,对PUR胶合有增强效应,对RPF胶合没有显著影响。在ACQ浓度为0.1%～1.0%范围内,胶合强度没有显著变化。     

Effects of moisture content and specific gravity on static bending properties and hardness of six wood species

This study was designed to investigate the effects of moisture content (MC) and specific gravity (SG) on the bending strength and hardness of six wood species including Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don), China fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), red meranti (Shorea spp.), Selangan batu (Shorea spp.), and red oak (Quercus spp.). The experimental results are summarized as follows: Effects of MC and SG on the strength (MOR), stiffness (MOE), and hardness (H _B) could be represented by a multiregression formulas. A negative correlation existed between these properties and MC, whereas a postive correlation showed between them and the SG. The changing rate of these properties induced by 1% MC changes varied with the wood species: 2.6% change in MOR was observed in Japanese cedar, China fir, western hemlock, red meranti, and Selangan batu; and 3.9% was found in red oak. For MOE, a 0.58% change was observed in Japanese cedar, China fir, and red meranti; western hemlock and Selangan batu exhibited 1.2% and red oak 2.5%. For hardness, a 1.1% change was observed in Japanese cedar, western hemlock, and red oak; red meranti and China fir exhibited 3.3%; and Selangan batu 1.8%.A part of this report was presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society in Shizuoka, Japan, April 3-5, 1998