WS&E Research Programs

Biodeterioration, materials protection and product durability:
Research on how wood decays, protecting wood-based materials against unplanned biodeterioration through chemical and other means, durability and performance of wood products, and how to design and manage for long life. Important components of this program are:

Wood Utility Pole Research Cooperative: Environmental Performance of Treated Wood research cooperative
Dr. Jeff Morrell: wood protection systems, biodeterioration processes

 

Bioenergy and Environmental Performance: Bioenergy systems using wood and ag residues; drying technologies.


Dr. Michael Milota: wood drying, air emissions, combustion systems
Professor David Smith: biofuels, energy conversion systems
Composite Materials:  Advanced materials can be made from various forms of wood in combination with adhesive and other materials such as plastic, metal or cement. These materials can be engineered for a variety of applications and desired properties. OSU research in this area focuses on applications, manufacture and more fundamental aspects of composite science. Faculty programs include:

Dr. Kaichang Li: adhesive chemistry, wood-plastic materials
Dr. John Simonsen: cellulose nanocomposites, wood-plastic composite materials
Dr. Lech Muszyński: mechanics of wood composites
Dr. Rakesh Gupta: mechanical properties/behavior of composites
Dr. Fred Kamke: composite design, processing, and performance
Dr. John Nairn: mechanics and fracture of wood composites, interfacial adhesion

Forest Products Business and Marketing: Innovation is a key to future success in most businesses, and especially in forest products. Marketing and business management strategies to facilitate forest industry competitiveness are at the heart of our research program in this area.

Dr. Eric Hansen: environmental marketing, innovation management
Dr. Christopher Knowles: global markets and trade, local marketing
Dr. Scott Leavengood: quality management, innovation, commercialization of lesser-known species
Green Building/Sustainable Design: Research to expand the use of wood in green building/sustainable design. Understanding the needs of green materials end-users, and facilitate development and characterization of gree materials to establish material statistics so that products can be used in the industry with confidence and reliability.

Dr. Christopher Knowles:  understanding needs and preferences of designers; development of local markets for forest products
Dr. Arijit Sinha:  developing integrated, intelligent, multi-disciplinary systems for achieving sustainability, product development for efficient use of renewable materials in the built environment

Timber Engineering, Mechanics and Structural Design:  Research to advance the state-of-the-art in timber engineering and structural wood design including: (1) behavior of constituent materials, components, and assemblies, (2) performance of structural systems under structural and environmental loading/demand, and (3) engineering design of wood structures.

Dr. Rakesh Gupta: timber engineering/mechanics, structural engineering, mechanical properties of wood
Dr. Thomas McLain: mechanical connections
Dr. John Nairn: mechanics and fracture of wood