Strength grading and selected strength properties of European hardwoods
by Philipp Schlotzhauer
Date of Examination:2018-09-13
Date of issue:2019-07-22
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Holger Militz
Referee:Prof. Dr. Holger Militz
Referee:Prof. Dr. Werner Seim
Referee:Prof. Dr. Dr. František Hapla
Referee:Prof. Dr. Andreas Krause
Referee:PD Dr. Christian Brischke
Persistent Address:
http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-7525
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Abstract
English
Since national standing stocks of hardwoods will be rising in central Europe in the future, it is the declared political will to introduce these resources to a higher extent into the building sector. That is why since the turn of the century more and more funds for hardwood research have been made available. This research together with efforts made by private companies has led to a number of European and German technical approvals for hardwood glulam (oak, beech, sweet chestnut, beech LVL). A further result was the inclusion of the hardwood species beech, oak, maple, ash and poplar into the European standard EN 1912, which allows the use of these hardwoods as solid wood product in construction. Nonetheless, a wide-spread use of these products cannot be witnessed at present. One goal of this dissertation was to identify reasons for this development. Next to market driven causes like a still sufficient availability of softwood and high prices of hardwood products, technological reasons (problems) regarding hardwood glulam and solid wood were identified. In the course of this dissertation, it was aimed to answer some of these technical questions, in order to work towards a more reliable and cost reduced (etc.) hardwood construction product. First, the market and standard situation was identified and put together. The subsequent research was designed to create answers to pressing questions connected to the work field of strength grading. Here, a raised improvement potential was seen. For the six European hardwood species oak, beech, ash, maple, lime and birch the distribution of sawn wood characteristics (of a typical, market available assortment) were determined and the timber availability examined, in order to evaluate the suitability of the species for a wider use in construction. For the species ash and maple, a yield analysis from round wood sections to sorted glulam lamellas was carried out, which pointed out the need for an improved sawing technique (incl. sawing pattern), a faster drying technology and optimized strength grading. When it comes to strength grading, the grain angle is highly correlated with the final tensile strength of the glulam lamella. According to experts on the field, it is not possible to determine the grain angle on hardwoods in a non-destructive way. In the course of this dissertation, it was proven that for five of the six above-mentioned hardwood species (except ash) it is possible to determine the grain angles by machine use. Also, in this field of work falls the topic “size effect”, which was examined for bending, tension and compression parallel to grain (for all six species). Mechanical properties in tension and compression testing perpendicular to grain were examined for ash, maple and beech construction timber. In addition, tension tests on glulam lamellas were carried out and the results correlated with the sorting results. These experiments revealed the unused potentials (in standard strength values) of some of the hardwoods, but also pointed out the difficulties in raising the final yield (i.e. lower production costs).
Keywords: European hardwoods; structural timber; glulam; strength grading; strength properties; wood mechanical properties
