Treesearch

There are thousands of soft-story wood-frame buildings in California which have been recognized as a disaster preparedness problem with concerted mitigation efforts underway in many cities throughout the state. The vast majority of those efforts are based on numerical modelling, often with half-century old data in which assumptions have to be made based on engineering judgment and project committee consensus. The NEES-Soft project, whose full title is “Seismic Risk Reduction for Soft-Story Wood-frame Buildings,” is a five-university multi-industry three-year project with many facets...

Esterified kraft lignins (KL) were prepared by reaction with maleic anhydride (MA), succinic anhydride (SA), and phthalic anhydride (PA) in acetone solutions. The esterified lignins were characterized using ATR-FTIR, solid state CP-MAS 13C NMR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). PA modification resulted in the highest weight gain percent (WGP) when compared to MA and SA modifications. Spectroscopic analysis revealed decreases in hydroxyl content and increases in carbonyl (C=O) and ester groups of the modified KL as a result of...

This work extends previous efforts in plate bending of Virtual Fields Method (VFM) parameter identification to include a general 2-D anisotropicmaterial. Such an extension was needed for instances in which material principal directions are unknown or when specimen orientation is not aligned with material principal directions. A new fixture with a multiaxial force configuration is introduced to provide full-field strain data for identification ofthe six anisotropic stiffnesses. Two paper materials were tested and their Qij compared favorably with those determined by ultrasonic and tensile...

The marketplace has an increasing desire for credible and transparent product eco-labels based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) data, especially involving international trade. Over the past several years, stakeholders in the U.S. wood products industry have developed many such “eco-labels” under the ISO standard of LCA-based environmental product declarations (EPDs). The standard requires data to be less than 10 years of age, a current issue that needs to be addressed for many structural wood products’ life-cycle inventories (LCIs). Under the umbrella of the Consortium for Research on...

Structural properties have been shown to be critical in the osteoconductive capacity and strength of bioactive ceramic bone scaffolds. Given the cellular foam-like structure of bone scaffolds, nanoindentation has been used as a technique to assess the mechanical properties of individual components of the scaffolds. Nevertheless, nanoindents placed on scaffolds may violate the rigid support assumption of the standard Oliver–Pharr method currently used in evaluating the Meyer hardness, H, and elastic modulus, Es, of such structures. Thus, the objective of this research was to use the...

Documenting the environmental performance of building products is becoming widespread because of many green-marketing claims made without scientific merit (i.e., green-washing). Developing environmental product declarations (EPDs) for building products is one way to accomplish this objective for scientific documentation and to counter green-washing. EPDs are based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) data and are similar to nutritional labels for food. To develop a business-to-business (B2B) EPD for uncoated cellulosic fiberboard, gate-to-gate life-cycle inventory (LCI) data must be developed to...

Expanding bioenergy production has the potential to reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve energy security. Science-based assessments of new bioenergy technologies are essential tools for policy makers dealing with expanding renewable energy production. Using life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis, this study evaluated a 200-kWe modular advanced biomass pyrolysis system, referred to as the Tucker renewable natural gas (RNG) unit. Similar to pyrolysis systems except no bio-oil is produced, the Tucker RNG unit converts forest and woody residues at high temperatures in an extremely...

Whole-building life-cycle assessments (LCAs) populated by life-cycle inventory (LCI) data are incorporated into environmental footprint software tools for establishing green building certification by building professionals and code. However, LCI data on some wood building products are still needed to help fill gaps in the data and thus provide a more complete picture for whole-buildings LCAs. Specifically, no LCI data are available in North America on producing hardboard and engineered wood siding and trim (EWST). This study used the internationally recognized LCI method to develop the...

Paper and paperboard are the most widely-used green materials in the world because they are renewable, recyclable, reusable, and compostable. Continued and expanded use of these materials and their potential use in new products requires a comprehensive understanding of the variability of their mechanical properties.

Analysis of microbial communities is a valuable tool for characterization and identification of microbes in a myriad of environments. We are currently using the molecular method terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis to characterize changes in bacterial and fungal communities on treated and untreated wood in soil. T-RFLP uses fluorescently labeled primers that bind to DNA and provide a fluorescent tag for each unique organism in a sample. The result is a microbial fingerprint that can be used to characterize the community of organisms present in the sample....