The evaluation of long-term mechanical properties of wood-based panels by indoor exposure tests

Wood-based panels such as plywood, oriented strand board, particleboard, and medium-density fiberboard are used for roof, wall and floor sheathing materials in residential construction. However, the service life of these panels is still unknown due to the lack of long-term durability data. In this paper, test results from six different indoor exposure experiments were integrated to investigate the long-term durability of wood-based panels. The indoor exposure tests lasted for a maximum of 10 years, providing the panels with the changes in moisture content that ranged between 5 and 18%. The reduction in mechanical properties was determined to be in the range of 0–16% for the bending strength, 3–22% for the modulus of elasticity, 11–31% for the internal bond strength and 0–8% for the nail-head pull-through strength. No reduction was recognized for the lateral nail resistance. Furthermore, the concept of deterioration intensity (DI) based on the moisture content history was introduced to predict the long-term durability of the panels, and various calculation methods for DI were discussed so as to increase the correlativity of this property with the reduction in a mechanical property.