Experience an ocean of opportunity from wood at LIGNA.23

 Friday, March 10, 2023

Endless possibilities of wood to be re-established by Fraunhofer at the upcoming LIGNA. The Fraunhofer WKI combines various materials into high-performance building elements using minimal material and energy. These novel hybrid material systems are designed to conserve resources, protect the climate, and at the same time expand the scope for architectural design.

The Fraunhofer Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut (WKI), headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany, has been dedicated to wood research and sustainability through the use of renewable raw materials for more than 75 years. And now, the research is based on the properties of the wood. In relation to its weight, it has high strength and also offers high adaptability and workability. This is contrasted by the rather variable properties of wood in terms of tensile and compressive strength, which means that its use in load-bearing structures in particular has been limited to date. To compensate for this drawback, the WKI is developing both suitable fiber composite plastics and the appropriate manufacturing processes for wood-fiber composite plastic systems (wood-FRP systems). One approach, for example, is to incorporate multiple layers of polymer matrix and reinforcing fabric into a wooden structure as a tensile component. Several processes are available for implementing this technology. For example, a particularly high quality and reproducibility can be achieved by vacuum infusion. The hand lay-up process, on the other hand, allows in-situ applications, whereby the fiber composite plastic can even be used to reinforce existing wooden structures, provided the wooden components are accessible.

Another approach is wood-concrete composite systems (HBV systems), intended as an alternative to reinforced concrete. According to the WKI, they are particularly suitable for use under bending loads, in which high tensile stresses can occur on the underside of the composite system, for example in beams or ceiling slabs. To absorb these tensile forces, the Braunschweig researchers replace the steel with suitable wood. In this way, ceiling slabs are created, for example, in which a beam structure is first installed with a top layer of wood-based panels.

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