The Wood Mechanics Lab is an interdisciplinary teaching and research lab that serves the Building and Construction Technology program, students from more than 30 different programs, and industry partners both nationally and internationally.

Established in the early 1960’s by Dr. Alan Marra and Dr. Bruce Hoadley, the lab originally focused on wood adhesives and wood chemistry. Over the past 20 years, however, the lab has changed focus to structural materials, building components, and bio-based products testing, including non-wood products such as structural bamboo.

Equipment

  • 2000 sq. ft flexible high-head testing and teaching area with strong floor and 5-ton crane
  • Large-specimen manufacturing, testing and storage
  • 150 kN (33 kip) Material Testing System (MTS) testing machine
  • Lunaire 0.9 m3 (32 ft3) steady-state temperature/humidity conditioning and test chamber
  • Walk-in conditioning chamber
  • Izod impact tester
  • Logic Beach hyperlogger 16-channel mobile data logger
  • Logic Beach minilogger 4-channel mobile data logger
  • IOTech 60-channel data acquisition system
  • Drying ovens
  • Dry kiln
  • MakerBot Replicator 3D printer
  • Shopbot Handibot CNC router
  • 10′ glulam and CLT press
  • Concrete mixer and testing equipment

Courses and Projects

The following list shows courses that are currently using the Wood Mechanics Lab. Contact instructors directly if you are interested in signing up for any of these.

  • BCT 204 – Construction Materials & Methods
  • BCT 304 – Properties of Wood
  • BCT 330 – Mechanics of Building Materials for Construction
  • BCT 540 – Design of Wood Structures
  • BCT 597B – BioBased Building Lab
  • BCT 597F – Wood Design Studio
  • BCT 590ST – Alternative Material Construction Systems for Sustainability

We also mention cool student and faculty projects that use the Wood Mechanics Lab in our news feed under the Wood Mechanics Lab tag.

Faculty Contacts

Peggi Clouston, Professor of Wood Mechanics and Timber Engineering

Munkaila Musah, Assistant Professor

Alexander Schreyer, Senior Lecturer II