Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has been widely discussed as a relevant industrialized construction solution. Numerous publications have considered CLT as a structural wood-based panel, but other documents have mentioned it as a building or even a construction system. Many authors address its application in multistory buildings, although single-family houses and lower building applications have become desirable topics as well. Given these gaps, this review study addresses a systematic method to evince the functions of cross-laminated timber in construction. The elucidation and discussion were led by technical and scientific contents through publications present in scientific websites and the Google web search engine. Intricate perceptions about the knowledge and reference of CLT functions were identified. From prospections, it was possible to state that CLT is a timber-forest product created in Europe, whose function acts as a structural composite panel of the engineered wood product category. However, CLT has been mentioned by many publications as a building or a construction system. Suggestions were raised to clarify to all readers with respect to misconceptions, and elucidate the construction systems capable of using it as the main resource. Discussions evinced the characteristics and potentials of this wood product. Even with its increasing application in tall buildings, the commercial application of CLT in low-rise buildings may be boosted by the possibility of large-scale production of industrialized houses.

Use of lignocellulosic materials in particleboard has turned into an alternative for the reuse of such materials, which are abundant and may have precarious disposal techniques. The present study fabricated particleboards using industrial sawmill waste from tropical hardwoods (a mix of species) and sugarcane bagasse with castor oil-based bicomponent polyurethane resin and evaluated the influence of the incorporation of sugarcane bagasse (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%) on the physical and mechanical properties of the composites. The particleboards were produced according to the Brazilian Standard ABNT NBR 14810 (2018), and performance requirements were assessed using Brazilian and international standards. Some of the particleboards met standardized requirements, with Treatment 5 (50% sawdust and 50% bagasse) showing better performance, indicating the possibility for use indoors in dry conditions. The addition of sugarcane bagasse increased dimensional stability of particleboards when compared with panels manufactured with timber residue. Statistical analysis indicated the percentage of bagasse was significant, increasing physical and mechanical properties when compared with the reference treatment.

The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model is a widely used constitutive model to represent the non-linear behavior of concrete in numerical analysis. However, a limited number of studies compared the level of accuracy of numerical models with the main code provisions from the literature. In addition, the influence of CDP material parameters on the structural behavior of corbels was scarcely studied. This study proposes to evaluate the ability of numerical models using CDP to represent the structural behavior of corbels regarding the ultimate load, reinforcement deformation and failure mechanism. In addition, we compared the predictions of the numerical models with the ones from design code expressions regarding the ultimate capacity. For this, three test results of corbels from the literature were evaluated with numerical models using the CDP, as well as with analytical models from different code provisions. A sensitivity analysis—by changing the dilation angle (ψ) and shape factor (K_c)—was performed. The comparison between tested and predicted resistances with the proposed numerical modeling choices was equal to 1.04 with a coefficient of variation of 11%. On the other hand, the analytical models evaluated overestimated the corbel capacity by more than 62%, on average. Therefore, the proposed modeling choices provide better predictions of ultimate capacity than the evaluated analytical models and can be used to assess the corbel design under more complex boundary conditions.

This research examined the influence of the compositions between coconut fiber (Cocos nucifera) and wood particles (Pinus taeda L. and Eucalyptus saligna) on physico-mechanical properties of homogeneous particleboards. The exploratory study was carried out under Tukey’s contrast test of means, at 5% significance level, with the following compositions: 100% coconut fiber (F100 P0 E0); 50% coconut fiber, 25% pine particles, and 25% eucalyptus particles (F50 P25 E25); and 50% of pine particles and 50% of eucalyptus particles (F0 P50 E50), with particle moisture content between 0% to 2% and 10%, in mass, of polyurethane-castor oil (PU-Castor) resin. Three panels were produced for each composition. The physico-mechanical properties such as density, moisture content, swelling in thickness after 24 h of immersion in water, perpendicular tensile strength, static bending strength, and modulus of elasticity were evaluated using standard methods. The results obtained indicated the potential for using coconut fiber for the production of homogeneous particleboards in view of the minimum criteria required by the normative documents, with emphasis on the physical property of swelling after 24 hours, which obtained a statistically equivalent average relative to the treatment that contained only wood particles.

The use of new wood species in construction requires knowledge of their properties for safer and more economical structural sizing. In Brazil, structural projects are carried out according to the standard document ABNT NBR 7190:1997. Tests required by this standard for the complete characterization of species require large machines with high costs, which are present only in large research centers. Considering the lack of experimental determination, this study aimed, with the help of analysis of variance of regression models, to investigate the possibility of estimating, through apparent density, wood properties obtained in tests where failure is considered fragile, allowing the estimation of properties of species still little used. Ten wood species belonging to the hardwood group (cambara, cedro, cedrorana, copaiba, angelim-araroba, castelo, oiticicaamarela, guarucaia, guaicara, and garapa), covering all strength classes established in the standard ABNT NBR 7190:1997, were used. The results showed that shear strength parallel to the grain (fv0) was the only property that could be estimated by apparent density (ρ12), with an R 2 above 50%. Tensile strength normal to the grain (ft90) and splitting strength (fs0) showed poor fit quality.