Development of a Testing Protocol for Effects on Strength of Laboratory- Manufactured, Fire Retardant-Treated Strandboard

This research investigated the mechanical properties of laboratory-manufactured, fire retardanttreated (FRT) strandboard in an effort to establish laboratory testing protocols for these types of composite products. This study evaluates both the initial effects of fire retardant treatment and the effects of extended high-temperature exposure. Two sets of FRT and untreated strandboard panels were manufactured and tested. Preliminary work had assessed the effect of strandboard specimen width on the stability of mean and variance estimates obtained when testing matched treated and untreated specimens with four different widths. Those results indicated that use of ≥200 mm-wide strandboard specimens decreased both variation and error associated in mean estimates compared with testing narrower-width strandboard specimens. The findings in this study show that the testing protocols developed for laboratorymanufactured, FRT strandboard were both reproducible and adequately severe. These laboratory test methods successfully identified the potential initial strength effects on strandboard performance and their potential for secondary strength loss when exposed for an extended time in a high temperature environment minimizing the costs of using large commercial production facilities