wood Archives

Durability of wood – integration of experimental and numerical approach

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A cross section of cut pieces of wood. Serene Gambarelli and Josipa Bosnjak research the tensile strength of soft- and hardwood and use a numerical model to capture the complex behaviour of wood, aiming to further our understanding of materials to be used in construction.

If a building is to have a lifetime of fifty years or more, it is important to be able to predict how the construction materials will fare in that timespan. This is particularly challenging for natural materials like wood due to natural differences in the structure. Serena Gambarelli and Josipa Bošnjak at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, employ a hygro-mechanical […]

Foresting Douglas-fir through targeted micropropagation

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Researchers investigate the regulation of embryogenesis in Douglas-fir, aiming to lead to improved somatic embryogenesis protocols for clonal micropropagation

Conifer trees are in high demand for their aesthetic value and desirable wood, but producing these trees rapidly is challenging because of their long life cycle. Increased effort is underway to use artificial techniques to propagate Douglas-fir. However, this is constrained by a lack of viability and recalcitrance of in vitro cultures. Recent work by Drs Dmytro Yevtushenko and Mariana […]