Influence of specimen size during accelerated weathering of wood-based structural panels.

Wood structural panels are commonly subjected to short-term accelerated weathering (AW) procedures to determine relative moisture durability for quality control and product development purposes. The panel edges contribute heavily to moisture uptake since edges represent the least resistant pathway for moisture intrusion. In full-size panels, the edge area to total surface area ratio is small, and moisture intrusion is primarily limited to panel faces. When small specimens are used, such as those in AW procedures, the ratio of edge area to total surface area increases and moisture intrusion at the edges may dominate, which is referred to as the edge effect. The purpose of this study was to determine if physical and mechanical properties of oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood after AW are influenced by specimen size. Specimen width was varied while thickness and length remained constant to understand if edge effects were present in small specimens with different edge area to total surface area ratios. Three AW procedures were evaluated to determine if the effect of specimen size depends on weathering method. No clear effect of specimen size on physical and mechanical properties of either composite type was found. Differences in flexural properties between specimen widths were observed for unweathered OSB, but similar property retention between specimen widths after AW indicated the same trend as the unweathered control. Plywood results were influenced by natural defects, resulting in high variability and absence of statistically significant differences. Lateral nail resistance connection properties of both OSB and plywood were highly variable for all treatment groups and were unaffected by weathering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]