Summary of selected research papers presented at Wood is Good
Dr Andrew Pitman
As part of its 75th Anniversary the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India, organised and hosted this conference.
IWST, acting under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Ministry of Environment, and government department for Forests and Climate Change, conducts research on wood science at a national level and is a centre of excellence for wood science research. Visit
http://iwst.icfre.gov.in/index.html.
Some 93 papers were presented over two days on topics relating to the science and technology of wood in the standing tree, as processed and at the microscopic level in the cell wall. In addition, papers were presented on the demand and utilization of timber, timber product trade and the role that wood can play in helping alleviate climate change. Papers were presented by researchers from Asia, N. America and New Zealand.
Dr Andrew Pitman, BM TRADAs Technical Business Development Manager, was invited by Dr Krishna Pandey, the Conference Organising Secretary, to Chair the Wood Protection session and help judge the poster presentations. Dr Pandey is a wood technologist who has collaborated with Dr Pitman over many years to better understand the influence of wood weathering and decay on the changes in wood chemistry.
This conference provided an excellent opportunity to understand issues facing wood users globally and better understand some of the technologies being developed and evaluated at research institutes outside of the UK. Over 150 delegates from 8 countries attended.
In terms of general themes arising, the papers dealt with novel and often non-destructive techniques for examining wood properties either in standing trees, as converted wood or within regions of the wood cell wall. This type of research enables better decisions to be made about harvesting for specific end-uses, will prove useful in tree breeding programmes designed at improving wood quality and will allow the effects of wood-modifying chemistry to be assessed at the microscopic level. Other papers examined ways of improving wood properties using chemical and thermal modification techniques or using products derived from plants. A suite of papers dealt with the impacts of manufactured wood products on the environment through Life Cycle Assessment.
This document summarises a number of the papers presented that are of most interest to TRADA members.
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Summary of selected timber research projects presented at: INTER 2015
Dr Keerthi Ranasinghe
Exova BM TRADA first published a research summary based on the research work presented and discussed at the International Network of Timber Engineering Research (INTER) in 2014, when the research group changed its name from the long-held CIB-W18.
The group has been gathering annually since 1973 and the research discussed here laid the foundations for the first version of a European Model Code for Timber Engineering. In the 2014 INTER research summary we discussed the group’s beginnings in detail and Exova BM TRADA’s involvement with the group to date. Readers are invited to take a look at it within our online library of research summaries.
This year too, the INTER group gathered in the historic, scenic Adriatic coastal town of Šibenik in Croatia, under the invitation of Prof. Vlatka Rajcic, the Head of Structural Engineering Department of University of Zagreb.
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Summary of selected timber research summaries presented at Young Researchers’ Conference
Dr Keerthi Ranasinghe
The Young Researchers’ Conference, the Institution of Structural Engineers’ annual research event, brings together young, forward-thinking structural engineering PhD students and researchers, along with industry professionals and academics.
A selected shortlist of students and young researchers are then invited to present on their PhD at the YRC event at the IStructE headquarters in London. TRADA has sponsored the YRC event over the last two years.
Three timber-related research summaries from this event are compiled by Dr Ranasinghe and BM TRADA believes that these will be of value to the TRADA membership.
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