Wood-cement particleboard: Improved manufacturing, material characterization and potential application in concrete crash barriers

Recycling waste wood into wood composite products is increasingly attractive to reduce environmental problems associated with disposal and promote sustainable development. For use in engineering applications, in addition to developing suitable manufacturing methods, the material and load bearing characteristics of wood-cement particle composites must be thoroughly investigated. This research focuses on wood-cement particleboard (WCPB). An improved manufacturing process that yields superior wood-cement particleboard is developed; material properties required for engineering design are experimentally determined; and the potential application of wood-cement particleboard to enhance the impact characteristics of concrete highway crash barriers is investigated.; A pressure controlled, fully saturated curing process is developed to enhance the bond between wood particles and the cement matrix to produce a superior wood-cement particleboard. The bending, compressive and impact characteristics of wood-cement particleboard produced using this process are experimentally determined. The optimum cement/wood ratio also is determined.; The experimental results indicate that WCPB is able to absorb a significant amount of energy by undergoing large nonlinear deformations. With the aim of taking advantage of its energy absorbing capability, the potential application of WCPB to enhance the impact characteristics of concrete highway crash barriers is investigated.; Computational simulation is performed using the LS-DYNA finite element analysis code. The FE simulation agrees reasonably well with impact test results obtained in the laboratory. This suggests that the LS-DYNA material models can be effectively applied to model concrete and wood-cement particleboard.; Subsequently, vehicle crash simulations are performed on a concrete crash barrier and a concrete crash barrier with WCPB facades to determine whether WCPB can enhance the impact characteristics. It is found that a flat WCPB facade is too stiff relative to the flexibility of the vehicle bumper system and does not yield a significant reduction in the impact deceleration force on the vehicle. However, a tubular facade made of WCPB yields reasonable reductions in impact force. A triple tube facade appears to yield the best impact characteristics, assures controllable deformations and provides optimal safety to the vehicle occupants.