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This handbook provides an overview on wood science and technology of unparalleled comprehensiveness and international validity. It describes the fundamental wood biology, chemistry and physics, as well as structure-property relations of wood and wood-based materials. The different aspects and steps of wood processing are presented in detail from both a fundamental technological perspective and their realisation in industrial contexts. The discussed industrial processes extend beyond sawmilling and the manufacturing of adhesively bonded wood products to the processing of the various wood-based materials, including pulp and paper, natural fibre materials and aspects of bio-refinery. Core concepts of wood applications, quality and life cycle assessment of this important natural resource are presented. The book concludes with a useful compilation of fundamental material parameters and data as well as a glossary of terms in accordance with the most important industry standards. Written and edited by a truly international team of experts from academia, research institutes and industry, thoroughly reviewed by external colleagues, this handbook is well-attuned to educational demands, as well as providing a summary of state-of-the-art research trends and industrial requirements. It is an invaluable resource for all professionals in research and development, and engineers in practise in the field of wood science and technology.

This book provides basic information on the design of structures with tropical woods. It is intended primarily for teaching university- and college-level courses in structural design. It is also suitable as a reference material for practitioners. Although parts of the background material relate specifically to West and East Africa, the design principles apply to the whole of tropical Africa, Latin America and South Asia. The book is laced with ample illustrations including photographs of real life wood structures and structural elements across Africa that make for interesting reading. It has numerous manual and Excel spread sheet worked examples and review questions that can properly guide a first-time designer of wooden structural elements. A number of design problems are also solved using the FORTRAN programming language. Topics covered in the thirteen chapters of the book include a brief introduction to the book, the anatomy and physical properties of tropical woods; a brief review of the mechanical properties of wood, timber seasoning and preservation, uses of wood and wood products in construction; basic theory of structures, and structural load computations; design of wooden beams, solid and built-up wooden columns, wood connections and wooden trusses; as well as a brief introduction to the design of wooden bridges.

Wood composites as part of wood engineering materials has been reaching a constant developing trend, being used on a wide range of applications and becoming worldwide as a very promising alternate material face to traditional building materials such as concrete, metal and plastics. In this part of the series are treated aspects among which advances functionalities in laminates, the activation of natural fibres, the natural matrix, and others industrials manufacturing research advances for wood material as composite.

This book is a compilation of selected papers presented in the International Conference on the theme ‘Wood is Good: Current Trends and Future Prospects in Wood'. The contents of the book deal with recent innovations, trends and challenges in wood science and are grouped in five distinct sections. They cover a wide range of topics like wood variability, processing and utilization, wood protection, wood-based composites, wood energy and the role of wood in mitigating climate change. With the ever increasing human population and growing demand for wood, this book offers valuable insights for better understanding and efficient utilization of this wonderful gift of nature. This book will be useful to researchers, professionals, and policy makers involved in forestry and wood related areas.

Natural fibre composite is an emerging material that has great potential to be used in engineering application. Oil palm, sugar palm, bagasse, coir, banana stem, hemp, jute, sisal, kenaf, roselle, rice husk, betul nut husk and cocoa pod are among the natural fibres reported to be used as reinforcing materials in polymer composites. Natural fibre composites were used in many industries such as automotive, building, furniture, marine and aerospace industries. The advantages of natural fibre composites include low cost, renewable, abundance, light weight, less abrasive and they are suitable to be used in semi or non-structural engineering components. Research on various aspects of natural fibre composites such as characterization, determination of properties and design have been extensively carried out. However, publications that reported on research of manufacture of natural fibre composites are very limited. Specifically, although manufacturing methods of components from natural fibre composites are similar to those of components from conventional fibre composites such as glass, carbon and Kevlar fibres, modification of equipment used for conventional fibre composites may be required. This book fills the gap of knowledge in the field of natural fibre composites for the research community. Among the methods reported that are being used to produce components from natural fibre composites include hand lay-up, compression moulding, filament winding, injection moulding, resin transfer moulding, pultrusion and vacuum bag moulding. This book is also intended to address some research on secondary processing such as machining and laser welding of natural fibre composites. It is hoped that publication of this book will provide the readers new knowledge and understanding on the manufacture of natural fibre composites.