Lei Han, Dr. Matthew Schwarzkopf, Dr. Jaka Gašper Pečnik, and Dr. Andreja Kutnar, InnoRenew CoE researchers, together with Dr. Ulises Rojas-Alva and Dr. Andrea Lucherini from the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG), and Dr. Dick Sandberg from Luleå University of Technology, recently published a new scientific article “Exploratory study on the bending performance of thermo-hydro-mechanically densified Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) at elevated temperatures” in Wood Material Science & Engineering.

The thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) densification is a well-known wood modification procedure for improving the mechanical properties of low-density wood species, but its performance at elevated temperatures is not well understood. This is why in this study authors aimed at determine the bending behaviour of densified Scots pine at elevated temperatures.

The results demonstrate that densification can be a potentially effective method to retain the mechanical properties of wood at elevated temperatures.