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During this study, full-size wood composite sandwich panels, 1.2 m by 2.4 m (4 ft by 8 ft), with a biaxial corrugated core were evaluated as a building construction material. Considering the applications of this new building material, including roof, floor, and wall paneling, sandwich panels with one and two corrugated core(s) were fabricated and experimentally evaluated. Since primary loads applied on these sandwich panels during their service life are live load, snow load, wind, and gravity loads, their bending and compression behavior were investigated. To improve the thermal characteristics, the cavities within the sandwich panels created by the corrugated geometry of the core were filled with a closed-cell foam. The R-values of the sandwich panels were measured to evaluate their energy performance. Comparison of the weight indicated that fabrication of a corrugated panel needs 74% less strands and, as a result, less resin compared to a strand-based composite panel, such as oriented strand board (OSB), of the same size and same density. Bending results revealed that one-layer core sandwich panels with floor applications under a 4.79 kPa (100 psf) bending load are able to meet the smallest deflection limit of L/360 when the span length (L) is 137.16 cm (54 in) or less. The ultimate capacity of two-layered core sandwich panels as a wall member was 94% and 158% higher than the traditional walls with studs under bending and axial compressive loads, respectively. Two-layered core sandwich panels also showed a higher ultimate capacity compared to structural insulated panels (SIP), at 470% and 235% more in bending and axial compression, respectively. Furthermore, normalized R-values, the thermal resistance, of these sandwich panels, even with the presence of thermal bridging due to the core geometry, was about 114% and 109% higher than plywood and oriented strand board, respectively. 

Strands produced from small-diameter timbers of lodgepole and ponderosa pine were used to fabricate a composite sandwich structure as a replacement for traditional building envelope materials, such as roofing. It is beneficial to develop models that are verified to predict the behavior of these sandwich structures under typical service loads. When used for building envelopes, these structural panels are subjected to bending due to wind, snow, live, and dead loads during their service life. The objective of this study was to develop a theoretical and a finite element (FE) model to evaluate the elastic bending behavior of the wood-strand composite sandwich panel with a biaxial corrugated core. The effect of shear deformation was shown to be negligible by applying two theoretical models, the Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories. Tensile tests were conducted to obtain the material properties as inputs into the models. Predicted bending stiffness of the sandwich panels using Euler-Bernoulli, Timoshenko, and FE models differed from the experimental results by 3.6%, 5.2%, and 6.5%, respectively. Using FE and theoretical models, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to explore the effect of change in bending stiffness due to intrinsic variation in material properties of the wood composite material. 

Abstract Profiled hollow core sandwich panels (SPs) and their components (outer layers and core) were manufactured with ponderosa and lodgepole pine wood strands to determine the effects of low-velocity impact forces and to observe their energy absorption (EA) capacities and failure modes. An instrumented drop weight impact system was applied and the tests were performed by releasing the impact head from 500 mm for all the specimens while the impactors (IMPs) were equipped with hemispherical and flat head cylindrical heads. SPs with cavities filled with a rigid foam insulation material (SP foam ) were also tested to understand the change in EA behavior and failure mode. Failure modes induced by both IMPs to SPs were found to be splitting, perforating, penetrating, core crushing and debonding between the core and the outer layers. SP foam s absorbed 26% more energy than unfilled SPs. SP foam s with urethane foam suffer less severe failure modes than SPs. SPs in a ridge-loading configuration absorbed more impact energy than those in a valley-loading configuration, especially when impacted by a hemispherical IMP. Based on the results, it is evident that sandwich structure is more efficient than a solid panel concerning impact energy absorption, primarily due to a larger elastic section modulus of the core’s corrugated geometry. 

Abstract A preliminary experimental evaluation of duration of load and creep effects of lightweight wood-strand sandwich panels (lwW-SSP) was conducted following ASTM D6815-09 to determine the equivalence to the duration of load and creep effects of visually graded lumber as specified in Practice D245. The modulus of rupture (MOR) of lwW-SSP was obtained using four-point bending tests to evaluate their creep and load behavior at three stress levels (15, 40 and 65% of MOR). Two different widths were considered to observe the effect of this parameter. lwW-SSP preformed well under long-term loads, as tertiary creep was not observed at all stress levels and the strain rate decreased over time. The panels met the criteria specified in the standard. None of the specimens failed, the creep rate decreased and the fractional deflection was <2. Accordingly, the duration of load factors of visually graded lumber is applicable to these panels. For the theoretical evaluation of solid wood behavior, viscoelastic models can also be applied to describe the creep behavior of lwW-SSP with wood-strand corrugated cores. An exponential viscoelastic model consisting of five elements accurately approximates the experimental creep behavior of three-dimensional (3D) core sandwich panel.