Search Results (908)

Wood construction is often proposed to reduce the construction sector’s greenhouse gas emissions due to its carbon sequestration potential. However, forestry significantly impacts natural water flows and increases water use—a critical concern in Chile. This study evaluates the water footprint of wood construction in Chile, considering direct and indirect water consumption under various scenarios. An input–output model was developed to quantify economic interactions, incorporating a new wood-construction sector based on data from a model house. An environmental extension matrix was also created to account for blue water (groundwater and surface water extraction) and green water (rainwater absorbed from soil) consumption. Future scenarios for the residential building sector were defined based on different growth rates for wood-based construction and current construction methods, and the model was resolved using the scenarios as demand vectors. The results indicate that wood construction’s water footprint is 2.38–2.47 times higher than conventional construction methods, with over 64% linked to forestry’s green water demand. By 2050, increased wood construction could raise the sector’s total water footprint by 30.0–31.8%. These findings underscore the need to assess water consumption as a critical sustainability parameter for wood construction and highlight the value of tools like the water footprint to guide decision-making. Full article

With growing worldwide interest in constructing larger and taller wooden buildings, wood properties, such as the dynamic modulus of elasticity (${MOE}_{dyn}$), have become increasingly important. However, the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of trees and logs has rarely been considered in forest management because a method for estimating the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs based on standing tree characteristics has been lacking. Herein, we explored the multiple relationships between the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs and standing tree characteristics of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) such as tree height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree age, including the stress-wave velocity of the tree, which is known to be correlated with the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs. The relationship between the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs and standing tree characteristics was investigated by considering the bucking position. Different trends between the bottom logs and upper logs were found for all characteristics, showing a multiple trend of tree characteristics with the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs based on the bucking position. The top three generalised linear mixed models for the prediction of the ${MOE}_{dyn}$ of logs showed relatively high accuracies when the bucking position was considered as a random effect. Although the contribution of the stress-wave velocity of the tree was relatively high, adding tree age improved the accuracy of the model, and this model was selected as the top model. The model for the bottom log, utilising the stress-wave velocity and age of the tree as explanatory variables, was highly explanatory (R² = 0.70); however, the best model for upper logs was only moderately explanatory (R² = 0.44). In addition, tree height and DBH were selected as explanatory variables along with tree age in the second and third models, which suggested the importance of growth rate rather than tree size. Therefore, adding correlates associated to characteristics related to height growth, such as site index, and DBH growth, such as stand density, is expected to improve model accuracy. Full article

Thermal insulation is a reliable strategy for achieving optimal thermal comfort in built environments and is among the most effective energy-saving measures. Currently, environmentally friendly insulation materials produced from plant and animal fibers constitute a significant component of the building industry, largely due to their minimal embodied energy and concerns about certain synthetic insulation materials’ potential adverse health effects. The main objective of the present study is to encourage and facilitate the utilization of environmentally friendly thermal insulation materials derived from biological sources, including vegetal and animal fibers, to improve thermal comfort and consequently reduce energy consumption in buildings. The study attempts to simulate the indoor air temperature profiles of a single building constructed using locally sourced materials and insulated in a series of stages with the aforementioned insulation materials. Firstly, insulation is applied exclusively to the roof. Secondly, the insulation is applied to the remaining wall surfaces. Alternatively, the insulation is applied to both the roof and the wall surfaces simultaneously. The objective is to ascertain the optimal combination of bio- and geo-insulating materials to achieve thermal comfort in buildings constructed with local materials in tropical climates. The Gauss-Seidel iterative method was employed to solve the energy equations that had been written on the walls and roof of the building. The equations were then discretized using the nodal method. To ascertain the thermal comfort of the simulated buildings, a comparison was made of the indoor air temperatures. The results of the simulations demonstrated that the utilization of wood fiber, reed panels, and straw bales as insulation materials led to a notable enhancement in comfort levels across all five building types, with an average increase of 17.5%. Among these materials, wood fiber emerged as the most effective insulation option, reducing temperatures by up to 19%. Its integration into the sheet metal-clad Banco building would be particularly advantageous. The findings demonstrate that the simultaneous insulation of walls and roofs with natural fiber thermal insulation materials markedly reduces indoor air and wall temperatures in buildings by up to 19% in comparison to uninsulated walls and roofs. Full article

The widespread adoption of wood in construction is driven by its sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and esthetic appeal. The construction of wood buildings often requires minimal specialized equipment, contributing to affordability and higher demand for wood-frame structures. Wood is considered more sustainable than other building materials, such as steel or concrete, for several reasons, including its renewable nature, low embodied energy, carbon sequestration, energy efficiency, and biodegradability, among others. In the United States, wood is the most common material used in building construction. While many of the structures are single-family homes, wood framing is also prevalent in larger apartment complexes, as well as commercial and industrial buildings. Timber has also been traditionally used for bridge construction, and recently, it has been considered again for the construction of new bridges. Over time, wood-frame construction has developed from a basic method for primitive shelters into a sophisticated field of structural design. As an eco-friendly resource, wood is crucial for promoting sustainable building practices. However, ensuring the long-term performance and safety of timber structures is essential. Regular inspections and testing of wooden structures are important to identify signs of wear, damage, or decay. One type of testing which is gaining popularity is nondestructive testing (NDT). NDT techniques have become invaluable for assessing the condition of timber components because such techniques are non-invasive in nature and do not cause damage, ensuring that structures remain functional with minimal disruptions. These methods provide critical insights into the structural integrity and operational efficiency of wood under sustained loads and in inclement environments. This article examines various NDT techniques used to evaluate timber structures, highlighting their capabilities, as well as advantages and limitations. It also discusses the importance of wood in advancing sustainability within the construction industry and emphasizes the need for accurate and reliable assessment methods to enhance the use of timber as an environmentally friendly building material. By incorporating NDT practices into regular inspection and maintenance protocols for buildings, bridges, and other structures, various stakeholders can ensure the durability, longevity, and safety of timber structures, thereby contributing to the progress and advancement of sustainable construction practices worldwide. Full article

Given the construction challenges and the impacts of industrial waste generation and the implications of using chemical adhesives, this study aims to evaluate epoxy as an alternative resin, whose application in the production of wood particleboards is still underexplored. In this regard, its results were compared with those of widely used adhesives, such as urea-formaldehyde (UF). Pine wood particles were used, and epoxy resin was applied as a binder in 5%, 10%, and 15% proportions. Panels were manufactured under pressing parameters of 5 N/mm² for 10 min at 110 °C. Physical and mechanical properties of panels were evaluated using Brazilian, European, and American standards. The results showed that epoxy resin is potentially convenient for the particleboard industry, as the 15% trait panels met the P4 class criteria in the Brazilian and European standards and D-2 for the American code, and the 10% trait panels achieved the M-3i class for the American document. Although 5% adhesive was insufficient to envelop wood particles, these traits with greater percentages reached high enveloping ratings in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test, making epoxy resin viable for the panel industry as a potential alternative to formaldehyde-based adhesives. Full article

Plastics play an indispensable role in modern society, yet their long-term durability poses severe environmental challenges, with mismanaged waste polluting ecosystems worldwide. The transition to a circular economy emphasizes the importance of recycling and resource recovery to mitigate these impacts. While conventional disposal methods like mechanical and chemical recycling or incineration face limitations such as quality degradation, high costs, or pollutant emissions, value-added approaches present an innovative solution. This review explores the potential of integrating recycled plastic waste into composite materials to enhance performance and sustainability. Focusing on diverse strategies, the paper highlights the use of recycled plastics in combination with fibers, wood, metal, concrete, glass, rubber, textiles, and foam. These composites demonstrate superior mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties, enabling applications across industries like construction, automotive, aerospace, and furniture. Furthermore, various roles of plastic waste—such as filler, reinforcement, matrix, or additive—are analyzed to showcase advancements in material innovation. By presenting methodologies and outcomes from recent research, this paper underscores the potential of recycled plastics in creating high-performance materials, supporting sustainable development and circular economic goals. Full article

With increasing global concern over carbon emissions in the construction industry, cross-laminated-thick veneer (CLTV) has emerged as an innovative green building material with significant potential to promote the achievement of “dual-carbon” goals. This study developed a groove and tenon splicing technique for thick veneers, enabling infinite splicing of the length direction and the preparation of a large-size CLTV measuring 12 m (length) × 3.25 m (width) × 105 mm (thickness). The mechanical properties of CLTV were studied in relation to splice position, assembly pattern of grain directions, and layer combinations. The results showed that increasing the number of // layers (// or ⊥ indicates grain direction of layer parallel or perpendicular to the length direction of CLTV) and using high-level layers significantly improved the compressive strength and reduced the coefficient of variation of CLTV. In terms of bending properties, reasonable splice distribution, placing // layers away from the neutral axis, and elevating layer level dramatically enhanced CLTV performance. Furthermore, the study revealed the synergistic effect among these design elements. The effects of layer level and the number of // layers on mechanical properties varied depending on splice arrangement and assembly pattern of grain directions, highlighting the importance of efficient structural design and raw material selection. This study addresses the limitations of traditional cross-laminated timber in raw material selection and production efficiency. Through structural innovation, it offers a solution for physical design and performance regulation, enabling the application of larger CLTV in wood structures and presenting new ideas for using fast-growing wood to reduce construction emissions. Full article

Desalinating seawater is a crucial method for addressing the shortage of freshwater resources. High-efficiency, low-cost, and environmentally friendly desalination technologies are key issues that urgently need to be addressed. This work used Populus tomentosa Carr. as a matrix material and prepared Populus tomentosa Carr.@Fe-GA through a complexation reaction to enhance the water evaporation rate and photothermal conversion efficiency of seawater desalination. The concentration of the impregnation solution was further refined, and the bonding mechanism along with the thermal stability of the composite photothermal material was investigated, including an assessment of their photothermal conversion efficiency. The research results indicate that the evaporation rate of water in a 3.5% NaCl solution for Populus tomentosa Carr.@Fe-GA under light intensity conditions of one sun reached 1.72 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, which was an increase of 44.5% compared to untreated Populus tomentosa Carr. It achieved a photothermal conversion efficiency of 95.1%, an improvement of 53.6% over untreated Populus tomentosa Carr., and maintained stability and high evaporation performance (95.4%) even after prolonged rinsing. This work realizes the functional utilization of seawater desalination with Populus tomentosa Carr. and offers a novel approach for the development and use of wood-derived photothermal material. Full article

With rising demand for wood products and reduced wood harvesting due to the European Green Deal, alternative lignocellulosic materials for insulation are necessary. In this work, we manufactured reference particleboard from industrial particles and fifteen different board variants from alternative lignocellulosic plants material, i.e., five types of perennial plant biomass in three substitutions: 30, 50 and 75% of their share in the board with a nominal density of 250 kg/m³. Within the analysis of manufactured boards, the mechanical, chemical and thermal properties were investigated—internal bond, formaldehyde emissions, thermal insulation, heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity. In the case of thermal conductivity, the most promising results from a practical point of view (W/mK < 0.07) were obtained with Sida hermaphrodita and Miscanthus, achieving the best results at 50% substitution. The lowest formaldehyde emissions were recorded for boards with Panicum virgatum and Miscanthus, highlighting their positive environmental performance. In terms of mechanical properties, the highest internal bond was noticed in particleboards with a 30% substitution of Spartina pectinata and Miscanthus. Research findings confirm the potential of perennial plants as a sustainable source of raw materials for insulation panel manufacturing. Despite needing improvements in mechanical properties, most notably internal bond strength, these plants offer an ecologically responsible solution aligned with global construction trends, thus lessening reliance on traditional wood products. Thus, long-term benefits may be realized through the strategic combination of diverse raw materials within a single particleboard. Full article

Urban environments significantly contribute to carbon emissions, both through operational processes and the embodied emissions of construction materials, thus exacerbating climate change. Nevertheless, urban timber structures offer a viable alternative by acting as carbon sinks, capable of sequestering carbon for decades or even centuries. This study develops and applies a methodology to quantify the biogenic carbon stored in Santiago City’s timber-based buildings, conceptualized as a “Second Forest” that transfers and preserves the carbon capture capacity of trees in the built environment. The analysis estimates that Santiago’s urban timber constructions have expanded their wood-built surface area by 192,831 m² over the past eight years, reflecting the growing adoption of timber in urban construction. During the same period, biogenic carbon storage increased from 199.78 kt to 202.73 kt, equivalent to 10.84 kt of CO₂ under average conditions. These findings highlight the potential of urban planning strategies, such as promoting taller timber buildings and adopting circular timber practices, to enhance carbon sequestration and reduce reliance on carbon-intensive materials. This research highlights the fundamental role that timber buildings play in urban climate change mitigation, positioning them as active contributors to global carbon management efforts. Full article

This study proposes a novel log end face feature extraction and matching method based on Swin Transformer V2, aiming to address limitations in accuracy and speed faced by traditional deep learning models, like InceptionResNetV2 and Vision Transformer. Accurate log identification is crucial for forestry and wood supply chain management, especially given the growing reliance on timber imports to meet industrial demands in construction, furniture manufacturing, and paper production. Our dataset comprises images of coniferous timber, specifically Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), reflecting its significance as an essential imported resource in China’s timber industry. By leveraging Swin Transformer V2 as the backbone, our method enhances feature extraction and achieves a significant accuracy improvement from 84.0% to 97.7% under random rotation angles while reducing the average matching time per log to 0.249 s. The model was evaluated under fixed and random rotation augmentations, and the results demonstrated Swin Transformer V2’s superior clustering ability, as confirmed by t-SNE visualization. Unlike InceptionResNetV2, the proposed model maintains high accuracy and efficiency even as the feature database size increases, making it suitable for large-scale applications. This approach provides a more accurate and efficient solution for log end-face recognition, supporting the development of high-throughput wood identification systems critical for forestry automation and the global timber trade. Full article

The formation of an aluminosilicate gel structure made of alkali-activated materials (AAMs) was conducted through an alkali-activation reaction of the solid precursors (fly ash, metakaolin, and wood ash). Fly and wood ash are by-products of the burning process of coal and wood, respectively. Alkali-activated materials of aluminosilicate origin, made from the different ashes, fly and wood, are very attractive research targets and can be applied in various technological fields due to their thermal stability, resistance to thermal shock, high porosity, high sustainability, and finally, low energy loss during production. In this paper, we evaluate physico-chemical properties, microstructure, and radiological environmental impacts when wastes that contain elevated levels of naturally occurring radionuclides (NORs) such as fly ash and wood ash are made into “green cements” such as AAMs. The determination of radionuclide content was performed by means of gamma-ray spectrometry. Results showed that the AAMs have a lower value in the activity concentration of radionuclides than raw materials. The external absorbed gamma dose rate was 74.7–107.3 nGy/h, and the external radiation hazard index values were in range of 0.445–0.628 Bq/kg. The results of the activity concentration measurements for alkali-activated materials indicate the potential of their safe application in building construction. In terms of the structural characterizations, the obtained alkali-activated materials were examined using XRD, DRIFT, FESEM, and TEM analyses. Full article

In Puntarenas City, a historic and tourist port of Costa Rica, several vernacular buildings constructed in wood can be observed. Despite the prevalence of this architectural type in the area, there is an absence of comprehensive studies aimed at documenting this significant heritage. This article seeks to identify the vernacular architecture in this city through the architectural characterization, quantification, and geolocation of existing buildings, as well as the preliminary recognition of the state of conservation of the group of buildings. The methodological process proposed a four-stage approach. The initial stage involved an examination of documentary sources to verify existing information and obtain a preliminary profile of architectural characteristics. A participatory workshop with the community enabled the validation of this profile. The second stage comprised fieldwork, which yielded a starting list of properties. In the third stage, a detailed examination of the listed properties enabled the verification of the profile of characteristics, the delimitation of the architectural typologies, and the selection of buildings that did not fulfill the preliminary profile or possessed significant modifications that affected their architectural legibility. The fourth stage comprised the development of an inventory of vernacular architecture buildings and the systematic data transference to a Geographic Information System. This study mainly obtained the following results: an initial list of 172 wooden buildings in Puntarenas City and a geolocated inventory of 75 vernacular wooden architecture buildings that exhibit considerable architectural legibility. Moreover, identifying the uses and architectural features of the inventoried buildings permitted their categorization into ten distinct typologies. Full article

The construction field is one of the largest sectors and industries worldwide. This industry is the main industry accused of contributing to greenhouse gases and increasing the effects of climate change. However, the construction industry is indispensable, accordingly in an attempt to decrease the greenhouse gas effects of construction this research presents the manuscript for building a one-story building with all components including waste products. The building model used a strip foundation with a concrete mix design incorporating recycled concrete as a partial replacement for aggregates, cement hollow blocks containing granite waste instead of conventional cement blocks, and sandwiched insulated panels made of wood-plastic composites for the roof. The structural soundness of the system was tested by loading it with a load surpassing its design load in addition to measuring the deflection and checking its abidance to the code limitations. The thermal efficiency was tested by measuring the temperatures in comparison with the outside of the building for a span of 7 days with data recorded every 1 h. Analysis of both the short-term and long-term costs and carbon emissions was performed by acquiring the carbon emissions per unit of material from literature and multiplying it by the quantities of the materials used within the different building alternatives. That study showed that the roofs made of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) using Wood-Plastic Composite (WPC) facings when used with hollow-block cement block walls have shown enduring cost efficiency and improved thermal insulation, leading to diminished energy usage, life-cycle expenses, and carbon emissions. Furthermore, the proposed system is more environmentally friendly than conventional reinforced concrete technologies due to their lower costs and emissions in addition to improving sustainability through utilizing recycled materials. Full article

Impoundment and increased flood duration are some of the most common stressors to declining forested wetlands in coastal Louisiana, USA. One type of restoration that has shown itself to be cost-effective is spoil bank gapping. This type of hydrologic restoration has occurred within the Lac des Allemands swamp of Barataria Basin. After 60 years of impoundment, the hydrogeomorphic processes in the study area were improved. The study area included eight paired 625 m² sites. Basal area growth over the 7-year period varied between 5.93% and 14.39%, with an average of 8.31%, or just over 1% wood growth per year. Post-restoration basal areas indicate that all our study areas are improving. Pooled together, the 2018–2023 years had significantly higher net production than the pre-project 2017 growing season. The distribution between leaf and wood production was remarkably similar within species types across years, with leaf production consistently exceeding wood production, particularly due to Taxodium distichum. Canopy cover has increased by 20 percent since project construction, and as a result, herbaceous cover tends to decrease over time. Full article