Out-of-grade board utilisation in panellised prefabricated construction

Project Under Development

This project aims to develop novel composites formed by recycling out-of-grade timber boards using various forms, natural binders and other suitable additives in developing structural panels that can replace traditional stick-built methods for timber construction. As in Node Project “Bio-material utilisation opportunities in panellised prefabricated construction”, these panels too will initially be developed for low to mid-rise housing aiming at taller and higher capacity applications later.

Please see Project Video for further information:

Node Introduction Video:

Objectives/Deliverables

Develop test specimens using out-of-grade recycled timber boards in various forms and natural binders (using laboratory testing of small-scale samples + computer analyses)
Develop low-energy manufacturing methods
Work with Node Project "Digital and physical systems design for optimised design-to-delivery of prefabricated timber housing" to develop multi-objective optimisation tools to design type-concepts for different target applications and their design requirements

Project Leader/s

Priyan Mendis

Node Leader - Manufacturing Innovation; Chief Investigator

University of Melbourne

Project Staff

PhD Candidate

PhD Scholarship Opportunity

Project Investigators

Tharaka Gunawardena

Project Leader; Chief Investigator

University of Melbourne

Ding Wen ‘Nic’ Bao

Project Leader; Chief Investigator

RMIT University

Project