There is increased interest in using biobased building materials from renewable resources along with greater demands on a more sustainable built environment. The value of by-products (or components) from processing of solid thermally modified wood (TMW) could be increased by using these components in biobased building materials, e.g. wood-plastic composites (WPCs). WPCs are mostly used in exterior applications and exposed to variations in humidity which can lead to extended wetting- and drying-out conditions. By replacing unmodified components in WPCs by TMW components, the maximum moisture content (MC) can be lowered, further leading to increased dimensional stability. The aim of this work was to increase knowledge about TMW components in WPCs and the objective was to study the dimensional stability and micromorphological changes as a result of water-soaking-drying cycles. Also the effect of the hot-water extraction of the components was studied.
Keywords: wood plastic composites WPC, thermally modified wood, dimensional stability
Authors
Susanna Källbom
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Kristiina Lillqvist
Steven Spoljaric
Kristoffer Segerholm
Lauri Rautkari
Mark Hughes
Magnus Wålinder
Login to download the PDF