Proposals to improve the durability assessment after ageing tests for wood-based sandwich panels

Abstract

This work deals with the durability assessment, after ageing, of wood-based sandwich panels, carried out according to the European guideline ETAG 016, Annex C7 Climatic testing cycles. ETAG 016-2 is a guideline to assess the wood-based sandwich panels for roofs. It has tests and criteria for evaluating the results of these tests. As regards durability and performance under the weather, it proposes to choose one of three different climatic cycles. The choice depends on the material of the core. Each climate cycle has assessment criteria to measure whether the cycle has been successfully overcome or not. This assessment is related to the standard EN 14509, paragraph 5.2.3.1 that contains the same climatic test cycles. In this work we subjected several types of non-metallic sandwich panels to this test and criteria. Then, a critical review of these acceptance criteria was done. As a result, some recommendations are proposed regarding the acceptance criteria and testing procedure.