The wood from the trees: The use of timber in construction

Ramage, Michael; Burridge, Henry C.; Busse‐Wicher, Marta; Fereday, George; Reynolds, Thomas; Shah, Darshil U.; Wu, Guanglu; Yu, Lu; Fleming, Patrick Hugh; Densley-Tingley, Danielle; Allwood, Julian M.; Dupree, Paul; Linden, P. F.; Scherman, Oren A.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.107

Cited by 975 publications

(567 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Increasing the use of wood in construction, as a renewable and low-embodied energy alternative to reinforced concrete and steel, will play an important role in reducing emissions and solid waste derived from the global construction industry (Joseph and Tretsiakova-McNally 2010;Ramage et al 2017). Wood in its natural form is a widely used construction material, but in certain environments and applications, issues related to durability, fire resistance, and dimensional stability need to be addressed (Rowell 2007;Ramage et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wood in its natural form is a widely used construction material, but in certain environments and applications, issues related to durability, fire resistance, and dimensional stability need to be addressed (Rowell 2007;Ramage et al 2017). In general, the treatment of wood through (1) chemical or thermal modifications, (2) coatings, or (3) impregnation offers effective routes to address some of these issues (Hill 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting the pore-filling ratio in lumen-impregnated wood

Shah

Janeček

et al. 2017

Wood Sci Technol

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Lumen impregnation, unlike most other wood modification methods, is typically assessed by the pore-filling ratio (PFR) (i.e. the fraction of luminal porosity filled) rather than by weight percentage gain (WPG). During lumen impregnation, the impregnants act on the voids in the wood rather than on the solid mass (e.g. cell walls), but the PFR cannot be measured as conveniently as the WPG during processing. Here, it is demonstrated how the PFR can be calculated directly from the WPG if the bulk density of the untreated wood is known. The relationship between the WPG and bulk density was examined experimentally by applying a pressured impregnation on knot-free specimens from Sitka spruce with a liquid mixture of methacrylate monomers. Based on the validated model, it was possible to further study the effect of different process-related parameters, such as hydraulic pressure, on lumen impregnation. Skeletal density is another key parameter in this model, which directly reflects the amount of inaccessible pores and closed lumens, and can be independently determined by helium pycnometry. The permeability can be qualitatively evaluated by PFR as well as skeletal density. For instance, poor permeability of knotty wood, due to the large extractives content around knots, was 123Wood Sci Technol (2017) 51:1277-1290 DOI 10.1007 reflected by a lower skeletal density and inefficient lumen impregnation (low PFR). Although this model was examined on a laboratory scale, it provides guidance on the precise effect of different parameters on lumen impregnation, thereby improving the fundamental understanding of and enabling better control over the modification of wood by impregnation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the pore-filling ratio in lumen-impregnated wood

Shah

Janeček

et al. 2017

Wood Sci Technol

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“…The empty lumina in dry wood make it a lightweight and efficient structural material, with a strength-to-weight ratio along the axis of the trunk comparable to that of steel [Ramage et al, 2017]. In the use of wood for engineering, the flow paths, as well as the structural resistance, are important: wood can be impregnated with fluid treatments for preservation, or to enhance its performance.…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell geometry across the ring structure of Sitka spruce

Reynolds

Burridge

Johnston

et al. 2018

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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For wood to be used to its full potential as an engineering material, it is necessary to quantify links between its cell geometry and the properties it exhibits at bulk scale. Doing so will make it possible to predict timber properties crucial to engineering, such as mechanical strength and stiffness, and the resistance to fluid flow, and to inform strategies to improve those properties as required, as well as to measure the effects of interventions such as genetic manipulation and chemical modification. Strength, stiffness and permeability of timber all derive from the geometry of its cells, and yet current practice is to predict them based on properties, such as bulk density, that do not directly describe the cell structure. This work explores links between micro-computed tomography data for structuralsize pieces of wood, which show the variation of porosity across the wood's ring structure, and high-resolution tomography showing the geometry of the cells, from which we measure cell length, lumen area, porosity, cell wall thickness and the number density of cells. High-resolution scans, while informative, are time-consuming and expensive to run on a large number of samples at the scale of building components. By scanning the same volume of timber at both low and high resolutions (high-resolution scans over a near-continuous volume of timber of approximately 20mm 3 at 15µm3 per voxel), we are able to demonstrate correlations between the measurements at the two different resolutions, reveal the physical basis for these correlations, and demonstrate that the data from the low-resolution scan can be used to estimate the variation in (small-scale) cell geometry throughout a structural-size piece of wood.

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“…The majority of carbon in terrestrial biomass is stored in forests as wood (Ramage et al, 2017, Pan et al, 2011). The current classification system distinguishes two types of timber.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural imaging of native cryo-preserved secondary cell walls reveals presence of macrofibrils composed of cellulose, lignin and xylan

Lyczakowski

Bourdon

Terrett

et al. 2019

Preprint

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27The woody secondary cell walls of plants are the largest repository of renewable 28 carbon biopolymers on the planet. These walls are made principally from cellulose and 29 hemicelluloses and are impregnated with lignin. Despite their importance as the main 30 load bearing structure for plant growth, as well as their industrial importance as both a 31 material and energy source, the precise arrangement of these constituents within the 32 cell wall is not yet fully understood. We have adapted low temperature scanning 33 electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) for imaging the nanoscale architecture of angiosperm 34 and gymnosperm cell walls in their native hydrated state. Our work confirms that cell 35 wall macrofibrils, cylindrical structures with a diameter exceeding 10 nm, are a 36 common feature of the native hardwood and softwood samples. We have observed 37 these same structures in Arabidopsis thaliana secondary cell walls, enabling 38 macrofibrils to be compared between mutant lines that are perturbed in cellulose, 39 hemicellulose and lignin formation. Our analysis indicates that the macrofibrils in 40 Arabidopsis cell walls are composed, at least partially, of cellulose, xylan and lignin. 41 This study is a useful additional approach for investigating the native nanoscale 42 architecture and composition of hardwood and softwood secondary cell walls and 43 demonstrates the applicability of Arabidopsis genetic resources to relate fibril structure 44 with wall composition and biosynthesis.45

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The wood from the trees: The use of timber in construction

Cited by 975 publications

References 58 publications

Predicting the pore-filling ratio in lumen-impregnated wood

Predicting the pore-filling ratio in lumen-impregnated wood

Cell geometry across the ring structure of Sitka spruce

Structural imaging of native cryo-preserved secondary cell walls reveals presence of macrofibrils composed of cellulose, lignin and xylan

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