Basic thermal properties and geometric characteristics of wood and oriented strand boards used in low-energy buildings

Abstract

This paper deals with the thermal properties and densities of selected wood types and oriented strand boards used in low-energy buildings. Basic thermophysical parameters such as thermal conductivity, as well as the density of each sample, were measured in the study. The thermal conductivity of the samples was measured by the transient method, i.e. the extended dynamic plane source (EDPS) method. The EDPS method is a modification of the dynamic plane source method for low thermally conductive materials. A total of two identical disc-shaped samples of the material tested and two metal blocks of sufficient geometrical size were enrolled in the study. In the first measurement series, the thermal conductivity of the samples was measured at a constant laboratory temperature of 20 °C, and the measurement was performed 100 times for each sample. The second measurement series was focused on the density determination of the material tested. The densities of the wood and oriented strand board samples were calculated from the geometric dimensions and mass of the samples measured. The results obtained were statistically processed. Furthermore, the experimental results pertinent to the thermal conductivity of the wood types tested were within the range of 0.103 - 0.275 W.(m.K)-1, whereas the thermal conductivity values of the oriented strand board samples ranged from 0.109 to 0.129 W.m-1.K-1. The present results are characteristic of the wood obtained from Slovak timber harvesting localities, as well as of wood products made from wood waste.

Keywords

• thermal conductivity
• density
• oak
• red spruce
• osb