bDepartment of Material Science and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Oviedo, Calle Independencia 13, Oviedo 33004, Spain
cDepartment of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Oviedo, Campus de Gijón, Gijón 33203, Spain
Received 27 April 2015. Revised 16 September 2015. Accepted 18 October 2015. Available online 4 November 2015.
Highlights
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We improved Annex C1, ETAG 016-Part 1: flexural testing, two spans, uniform load.
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This procedure was checked on four of the main types of wood-based sandwich panel.
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The comparison with analytical models was made, and uncertainties were estimated.
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EOTA TR 019-A3 is not considering properly the thicknesses of the faces.
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Should be avoided taking data from literature, for being used in analytical models.
Abstract
This work presents a detailed procedure for flexural testing, on two spans, of simply supported full wood-based sandwich panel subject to uniform load. This procedure improves the test described sparsely in the Annex C1 of EOTA-ETAG 016-Part 1: Guideline for European Technical Approval of Self-supporting Composite Lightweight Panels.
To show the validity of the method, several tests were carried out in accordance with this procedure and the results were compared with analytical models. It was observed that the analytical models fit the experimental results with different accuracy on the prediction of the load at maximum allowed deflection, provided that the mechanical parameters of the constituent materials of sandwich panel are known accurately.
It was also found that, in this type of sandwich panel, the thicknesses of the faces are not negligible, and therefore the shear stiffness of the sandwich should not be simplified in the equations.
Additionally, it is included a simple method to estimate the uncertainties of some of the outcomes obtained in the test.
Since many decades, Malaysia has been recognized as a major supplier of tropical wood products in the world. Malaysia has exported wood products to all the regions in the world mainly to Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceania (New Zealand and Australia), America and Africa. Traditionally, Europe has been the favorite market for Malaysia after Asia. In 2008, Asia market (about 54%) constitutes the highest percentage of the Malaysia total wood export value and followed by Europe (12%). Among the European market, Western Europe received the highest exports of wood product value from Malaysia (47% of the total European market). The biggest export markets are Netherlands, Belgium, France, United Kingdom and Germany. In 2008, the export value to Europe was USD 586,925,586. Despite that, in 2013 we expected that it will decline to 503,000,000 USD. The total trade value of Malaysian wood products in the European region is expected to decline about 14% compared to 2008.
The main objective of this study is to estimate and compare farmer demand for afforestation agreements in the Netherlands and Germany under different institutional-economic contract design conditions. Farmers’ responsiveness to financial and non-financial incentives to convert part of their land into forest is examined in a discrete choice experiment. Besides landowner and contract characteristics, we test the role of motivational drivers in explaining farmers’ willingness to conclude afforestation agreements. These are expected to lower demand for financial compensation. We fix financial compensation levels in contractual agreements relatively low compared to opportunity costs, but comparable to what farmers currently receive for nature conservation measures. Although we find substantial demand for afforestation agreements in both samples, Dutch and German farmers value contract conditions differently. This has important implications for the effectiveness of varying compensation levels on scheme participation rates. Farmers are willing to trade-off financial compensation against non-financial terms and conditions. However, having a positive environmental disposition towards wildlife conservation does not necessarily result in the acceptance of lower levels of financial compensation.
We test convergent validity of contingent valuation and choice modeling with field and eye-tracker data in an application for stone pine reforestations. Field results yield significantly different structural models and higher willingness to pay values in choice modeling. Eye-tracker results show that respondents devote relatively more time to attributes and the bid in choice modeling and that there are no significant differences in the total time used to answer. Divergences remain for modified formats that minimize visual and cognitive differences between methods. Using an attribute-stimulus format in contingent valuation or including dominant alternatives in choice modeling does not change results.
