In October the Forest Products Research Institute of Edinburgh Napier University gathered together forty researchers from Scotland, and further afield, to discuss the potential for future research into the behaviour of wood at microscopic scale for improved performance of wood products.
The keynote speaker at the workshop was Dr Karin Hofstetter of the Institute for Mechanics of Materials and Structures at Vienna University of Technology. Karin, who also heads the COST Action 'Experimental and computational micro-characterization techniques in wood mechanics' said that "Research in the field of wood and forest sciences is urgently needed in order to maintain and enhance the competitiveness of the timber industries, and to develop higher added value products."
She was impressed by the work presented by the other speakers and went on to say "Scotland is presented with an almost unique opportunity in having available leading scientists, in practically all relevant fields, so close geographically. This covers such diverse disciplines as chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering. Combining their competences in a joint research effort has huge potential to considerably advance the state-of-knowledge for the benefit of Scottish timber industries."
The workshop, funded by the National Telford Institute and co-hosted with the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, was run to gauge the level of interest in this field among researchers who are currently working with other materials, but have knowledge, techniques and equipment that could also be applied to wood.
Wood is a varied and complicated hydroscopic natural composite material and the performance of wood and wood-based products is strongly influenced by behaviour at ring, cell, cell wall and molecular levels. It is necessary to be able to understand and model wood mechanics and micromechanics in order to produce wood products with improved performance, enhance quality control, and design more adventurous, and more efficient, structures.
The keynote speaker at the workshop was Dr Karin Hofstetter of the Institute for Mechanics of Materials and Structures at Vienna University of Technology. Karin, who also heads the COST Action 'Experimental and computational micro-characterization techniques in wood mechanics' said that "Research in the field of wood and forest sciences is urgently needed in order to maintain and enhance the competitiveness of the timber industries, and to develop higher added value products."
She was impressed by the work presented by the other speakers and went on to say "Scotland is presented with an almost unique opportunity in having available leading scientists, in practically all relevant fields, so close geographically. This covers such diverse disciplines as chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering. Combining their competences in a joint research effort has huge potential to considerably advance the state-of-knowledge for the benefit of Scottish timber industries."
The workshop, funded by the National Telford Institute and co-hosted with the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, was run to gauge the level of interest in this field among researchers who are currently working with other materials, but have knowledge, techniques and equipment that could also be applied to wood.
Wood is a varied and complicated hydroscopic natural composite material and the performance of wood and wood-based products is strongly influenced by behaviour at ring, cell, cell wall and molecular levels. It is necessary to be able to understand and model wood mechanics and micromechanics in order to produce wood products with improved performance, enhance quality control, and design more adventurous, and more efficient, structures.
Although the timber industries are a key sector for Scotland, there are relatively few researchers currently looking at wood properties. However, there is a great deal of expertise in Scotland in related fields, and in techniques and approaches currently applied so solve other problems, which can potentially be applied to wood. We will be taking this promising opportunity and meeting again soon to develop ideas for collaborative research projects – also including interested researchers from the rest of the UK. There is a Yahoo group mailing list for interested researchers.
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