Research Projects on High-Performance Utilization of Wood for Outdoor Uses(RECENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES)

Abstract

Wood has a long history of use in familiar products, and even now wood is the staple material for buildings and furniture. Recently, new applications of wood have been decks, garden furniture, house fences, play equipment, boardwalks, and signboards. Wood products are also widely used in public construction works on river and roads such as bridges, sound-insulating fence, and guard-rail. The increase in the outdoor uses of wood products arises from their warmth and amenity properties, good design characteristics and natural harmony with the surrounding scenery. The environmental friendliness of wood is due to its renewability as a natural resource, to the low energy consumption in processing, and because it is easy to recycle or dispose. As proven by Horyuji Temple in Japan, which is the oldest wooden structure in the world, wood is almost an everlasting material. However, exterior wood, wood for outdoor uses is always exposed to weathering such as light or rainfall, and to biological deterioration by decay fungi or termites. For high-performance utilization of exterior wood products, not only structural reliability, but also durability and weathering resistance are highly required. We are conducting the research projects on the high-performance utilization of wood for outdoor uses, which are the characterization of the wood surfaces exposed to sunshine and rainfall, the non-destructive detection of decay and insect attacks in wood, the development of maintenance system to provide the long-life to wood, and so on. Among them, two research topics are outlined in this page (1).