In civil engineering hardwood and hardwood products are comparably less used, since up to now they are mainly utilized to produce energy. Since the use of hardwood is expected to significantly increase due to climate change, in the successfully completed first project phase it was shown, that glued-in rods in engineered hardwood products achieve comparably high strengths under static and cyclic mechanical loading.
To transfer the promising results into the economy, in the running second project phase aspects with practical relevance, like durability as well as swelling and shrinking processes of the systems in reaction to alternating climate and optimized rod configurations are focused. Further, the complex and time-consuming testing procedures for assessing weather resistance of wood and wood products shall be simplified through development of innovative materials testing solutions. In addition, innovative wood products, like birch plywood or birch laminated wood, will be included into the experimental program. 

Duration: 2021 until 2023