Lo sviluppo della filiera corta del legno: classificazione, caratterizzazione meccanica e applicazione del legno locale naturale e termo-trattato.

Short supply chain wood achieved by means of a sustainable forest management can produce several benefits such as: the increase in value of the forested areas due to the alternative use of wood in modern structural components; the environmental advantages as CO2 emissions reduction, landscaping improvement and landslide hazard reduction; the economic recovery of areas usually underdeveloped and abandoned. Abruzzo Region, in the central-southern area of the Italian peninsula, offers extensive wooded areas of about 400.000 ha with different timber species. The most abundant softwood species is pine with about 19.000 ha out of a total of about 25.000 ha of covered area. The most abundant hardwood species is beech with about 122.000 ha out of a total of about 360.000 ha of forested areas. The aim of this work is to study possible applications of local wood in the construction sector, with particular regard to the aforementioned species, in order to encourage its use also in high technological content products such as glue-laminated timber (glulam) beams and cross-laminated timber (X-lam or CLT) panels. Experimental tests along with analytical models and numerical simulations were considered and performed to compare novel engineered wood products, made of Italian beech and Corsican pine wood, with commercial components made of softwood. The mechanical characterization of these products was achieved as well as the study of interesting topics such as the in-plane behaviour, with the in-depth analysis of the buckling phenomenon, and the out-of-plane behaviour, for the reinforcement of existing timber floors, of CLT panels. Furthermore, the application of glulam joists and timber planks made of Italian beech wood for the realization of new wooden floors was studied, with insights about flexible timber-to-timber connections. Beech results a timber species with a great potential, thanks to its high mechanical properties; on the other hand, Corsican pine offers light weight and more workability. Therefore, these two timber species are compatible to each other to produce laminated wood, with a noteworthy possibility to optimize the material depending on the future state of stress of the single lamellas, and they result to be important resources for structural purposes.