Integrated Computer Models for Next generation Engineered Wood Products

工程木制品(EWPS)包括一类重要的重组木材和由木材衍生的人造板产品，包括：交叉层合板(CLT)、平行单板材(PSL)、单板单板(LVL)、定向单板材(OSL)和定向单板板(OSB)。不受原木原始尺寸和属性的限制，这些材料在创造下一代绿色建筑中发挥着越来越重要的作用。UBC校区的18层木结构建筑是一个很好的例子，说明了如何设计和制造天然材料，以满足高层建筑的结构和安全要求。其他产品如PSL、LVL、OSL和OSB更常用于住宅和商业建筑。这些产品在加拿大的可持续制造和应用需要进行持续的研发、磨机工艺优化和产品开发。这项拟议的研究计划旨在开发集成的计算机模型，以改变EWP的开发、制造和应用方式。研究人员、工厂生产人员和建筑设计师都可以通过最大限度地减少冗长、昂贵的实验室实验和高风险的工厂试验，从这些模型中受益。这项工作专注于基于链的EWP，其目标有两个：1)进一步开发单独的加工中心模块(MCM)，以及2)开发一个计算平台，将MCM整合为一个完整的全厂加工模型。这项工作将建立在我之前的模型基础上，这些模型模拟了各个加工中心的制造操作和材料特性。子模型或MCM的工作将需要调查关于木材复合材料加工的基本原理，为数值解决方案和可视化编写代码，以及设计实验以表征模型输入和输出验证的材料和属性。在集成方面，将创建一个物流模型，该模型可以模拟材料结构和性能在时间和空间两个领域的变化，并可以使用最先进的计算软件在一个统一的平台上连接所有MCM的输入和输出变量。这项工作可以加快研发、磨机工艺优化和新产品开发的成本效益。研究表明，在加拿大典型的OSB工厂中，例如，工艺优化可以将不合格品减少一半，罚款产生减少2%，停机时间减少2%，从而每年潜在节省1000万美元。预计在整个项目中将与业界密切合作，这将为HQP提供很好的培训机会。两名博士生和2-3名PDF将接受全面培训，可以受雇于目前面临劳动力严重短缺的资源部门，特别是熟练工人。

Engineered wood products (EWPs) encompass an important class of reconstituted lumber and panel products derived from wood, including: cross laminated timber (CLT), parallel strand lumber (PSL), laminated veneer lumber (LVL), oriented strand lumber (OSL), and oriented strand board (OSB). Unlimited by the original size and attributes of logs, these materials are playing an increasingly important role in the creation of next generation green buildings. The 18-storey wood building on UBC campus is a good example of how natural materials can be engineered and manufactured to satisfy the structural and safety requirements of tall buildings. Other products such as PSL, LVL, OSL and OSB have been more commonly used in residential and commercial buildings. The sustainable manufacturing and applications of these products in Canada necessitate ongoing R&D, mill process optimization and product development. This proposed research program aims at developing integrated computer models to transform the way EWPs are developed, manufactured and applied. Researchers, mill production personnel and building designers can all benefit from such models by minimizing the lengthy, costly laboratory experiments and risky mill trials. Focusing on strand-based EWPs, the objectives of this work are two folds: 1) to further develop individual machine centre modules (MCMs), and 2) to develop a computational platform to integrate MCMs for a complete plant-wide process model. The work will be built on my previous models which simulate manufacturing operations and material characteristics in individual machine centres. Work on the sub-models or MCMs will entail investigation of fundamental principles about wood composite processing, coding for numerical solutions and visualizations, and design of experiments to characterize material properties for model inputs and output validations. For integration, a material flow model will be created that can simulate the transformations of material structure and properties in both time and space domains, and can link input and output variables from all the MCMs in a harmonized platform using state-of-the art computational software.  This work can lead to accelerated and cost-effective efforts in R&D, mill process optimization and new product development. Research shows that in a typical OSB mill in Canada, process optimization, for example, can lead to potential $10 million/year savings by reducing defeat products by half, reducing fines generation by 2% and reducing downtime by 2%. Close collaboration with industry is expected throughout this project which will offer great training opportunities for HQP. Two Ph.D students and 2-3 PDFs will be trained and can be employed in the resource sector that currently faces serious shortage of labour especially skilled workers.