"Hygrothermal Performance of Buildings and their Materials", Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland. 30-31 Aug., 2016

One of the greatest risks to the uses of bio-based building materials is incorrect design and specification that allows moisture ingress and long term exposure to moisture. A lot of work within this Action has focussed on the hygrothermal behaviour of materials and this was the focus for the meeting held in Poznan on 30-31 August, 2016. The COST meeting was held in conjunction with the final activity within the DURAWOOD project

The DURAWOOD project  (“Superior bio-friendly systems for enhanced wood durability”) ran from September 2013 until April 2017 and was funded under the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme. It was concerned with the development of eco-friendly systems for wood treatment as alternatives to conventional wood preservatives and coatings.  The reason behind the project was the restriction of several wood preservatives containing traditional biocides being no longer desired on the market, due to the stricter toxicological requirements and an increasing ecological awareness of consumers.  In addition to limiting decay, often through the limiting of moisture uptake, LCA studies needed to be conducted on these new systems. which The implementation of novel solutions in wood protection makes it possible to use low quality wood material to manufacture high quality products (e.g. siding or cladding materials). In this manner such eco-friendly wood protection will be also a key factor reinforcing climate protection. More details on DURAWOOD can be found here.

The announcement for the meeting can be downloaded here, and the programme downloaded here.

The meeting was split into 4 sessions:

Session 1: Moisture and performance

Session 2: Performance of bio-based materials

Sessions 3 and 4: Performance of treated materials