Presented by Benoit Gilbert, Griffith School of Engineering, Wednesday 5th February 2014.
To justify continued expansion of Australia’s current hardwood plantation estate, it is becoming necessary to develop higher value end-uses for both pulpwood and smaller ‘sawlog’ resources. The use of the low commercial value stems currently culled during thinning appears to be a necessary option to improve the industry profitability and win new markets.
This webinar presents hollow Veneer Based Composite products currently investigated at Griffith University, in partnership with the Salisbury Research Facility, Queensland Government. The incentives behind the project are presented as the manufacturing process and structural capacity of the profiles. Future research directions to enable the product to be safely used by designers are also presented.
Presenter:
Dr Benoit Gilbert holds a Master of Engineering from France. He designed offshore platforms in Paris for more than 3 years before completing a PhD on cold-formed steel structures, in 2010, at the University of Sydney. He now teaches structural engineering at Griffith University and researches on both steel and timber structures. In timber structures, his interest especially lies in composite structures manufactured from waste hardwood plantation thinned logs.
