By: MS1-06:
Multi-functional performance of cement-bound wood products

Daia Zwicky, Niccolò Macchi

University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland (Switzerland)

Cement-bonded wood-based construction materials are used in buildings since the beginning of the 20th century already. Until today, however, they are chiefly used as non-structural finishing layers, e.g. as support for stucco, as fire protection or acoustic insulation panels, where their good fire resistance, thermal and acoustic insulation properties are combined with a relatively low and thus, structurally beneficial density.

Such wood-cement compounds (WCCs) have the potential, however, for creating some kind of very light-weight structural concrete used in prefabricated products or in-situ. From a structural engineering point of view, they should usually not be seen as an alternative to regular concrete as stiffness and strength of WCCs generally are rather low.

Considering further of their performance properties, however, may allow to create hybrid structural elements, i.e. construction elements which not only fulfill a structural task but also provide further building-physical performances such as those mentioned above as well as thermal storage capacity, as becoming more and more important in building-physical concepts and verifications for user comfort and heating requirements. Last but not least, such materials should also be easy to recycle or dispose of a good eco-balance, respectively.

The proposed session wants to explore the potential of cement-bonded wood products for building construction reg. the following aspects:

• Short-term and long-term structural properties (density, stiffness, strength, shrinkage, creep etc.);
• Economic performance;
• Ecological performance incl. recyclability and or eco-balances;
• Building-physical performance (thermal insulation and storage, acoustic insulation properties).

Submit an abstract to this mini-symposium here.