OSB and Marine Plywood: Performance Comparison for use with Light Steel Frame Walls in Brazil

Abstract

The use of light steel frame and wood frame in Brazil is still recent, hence there is little information about the durability of these technologies applied in Brazilian climate conditions. The wood-based boards are used as a part of the light steel or wood frame walls and are designed to contribute to the wall structural behavior (horizontal reinforcement and resistance to suspended loads). Once the information if such boards meet the DL (design life) set in the Brazilian code of residential building performance is still unknown, this paper analyses the technical characteristics of two woodbased boards - OSB and marine plywood - aiming to gather more information concerning durability under liquid water action. Thus, tests were carried out on samples of these two boards to evaluate their behavior against liquid water and after accelerated ageing test. In all cases, OSB showed to be more sensitive to early degradation than plywood.

Full document