2007 Research Highlights

Research Area:
Forest Service Strategic Goal 6: Conduct mission-related work in addition to that which supports the agency goals.
SPA Resource Management and Use

Corrosion behavior of metals in preservative treated wood

Key Contact: Sam Zelinka, szelinka@fs.fed.us
Partner: University of Wisconsin

A qualitative test that mimics the corrosion behavior of metals in contact with treated wood without using wood specimens would be of great value in rapidly evaluating the corrosiveness of new wood preservatives. Researchers at Forest Products Laboratory and University of Wisconsin are developing methods to correlate in-service performance and controlled corrosion experiments in wood. One step in developing this correlation would be to understand how uncertainties in measurements affect the calculated corrosion rate in a controlled environment. Researchers showed that corrosion rates for aluminum, steel, and hot-dipped galvanized nails in ammonium copper quat (ACQ)-treated wood could be measured in 6 months with a 5% uncertainty, primarily in the mass and surface area measurements. The next step will be to compare polarization resistance of metals immersed in a solution of preservative chemicals with corrosion of metals in contact with treated wood.