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A ton of research for the building industry is happening at local universities. It’s all state-of-the-art and expensive; some of it is even proprietary.

University researchers with big budgets study many broad topics such as seismic retrofitting, air quality and energy conservation. Smaller-scale research for specific new products developed by startups and small businesses is underwritten by grants and loans 鈥� much of it provided by state-funded nonprofit Oregon BEST.

Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg is director of the University of Oregon’s Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratories, in Eugene and Portland. He said his labs are working on many projects, and that the research helps companies not only validate their products but also connect to each other.

鈥淲e work with a lot of different industry partners and it’s an opportunity to be an aggregator and cast the wide net and maybe make matches,鈥� he said.

鈥淎nd we have really, really deep knowledge in specific problems. Our real work is problems we have right now and how we can help make that research more meaningful.鈥�

Such research is making possible the validation of groundbreaking and innovative building products and practices. Here are some of the latest developments:

Formaldehyde-free wood adhesive

One new product about ready to hit the market is a formaldehyde-free wood adhesive that can be used to make particle board and other manufactured wood products.

Hugh Mandel, owner and CEO of Corvallis-based EcoPro Polymers, has been working with Fred Kamke of Oregon State University’s Department of Wood Science and Engineering to test and develop his new glue.

Mandel said the research had an unexpected benefit by connecting him with his first client, Spekply, which has its own product being tested at OSU. Spekply creates wood-like products for specialty architectural panels and other products using agricultural waste, including hemp stalks and sunflower hulls.

鈥淪pekply was looking to develop specialty architectural panels and we collaborated with them and did some pilot testing at OSU,鈥� Mandel said. 鈥淲e are ready to scale up for them whenever they are ready to produce. (The research) helped us a great deal.鈥�

Kamke said EcoPro’s adhesive has been tested in phases over the past year and a half.

鈥淭he whole premise is to provide an alternative adhesive system for many types of wood products that does not contain formaldehyde,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his new commercial venture would not have been possible without Oregon BEST.鈥�

Reduced-concrete wind tower base

Another emerging company, RUTE Foundation Systems of Portland, is working with Franz Rad, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University.

Doug Krause, president of RUTE, said his design for a wind tower base will cut down by 75 percent the amount of concrete used for wind farm turbine towers, which can reach heights up to 400 feet.

鈥淎s far as launching and making all other parts of the train roll right, they helped a ton in making leverage and getting the test project out there,鈥� he said of Oregon BEST.

Rad said he has been working with Krause for about year. Everything is still in the design phase.

鈥淲hat we’re trying to do is eliminate most of the concrete that is used,鈥� Rad said. 鈥淚t’s not because we don’t like concrete, but it is such a big heap.鈥�

A wind tower’s base can be 8 feet deep and 40 to 50 feet wide to support the tall turbines, he said, which essentially makes it a permanent fixture.

The problem is that sometimes wind towers need to move because of changing weather patterns or greater need elsewhere. With the existing building method, that’s almost impossible to do, Rad said, and potential farming land is wasted.

鈥淵ou can’t get rid of that heap of concrete and would have to spend lots of money to come in and dynamite it out,鈥� he said.

The solution that RUTE came up with and that PSU is testing is a portable 鈥渉exapod鈥� 鈥� a six-legged precast concrete structure that can be assembled in pieces and removed the same way.

鈥淥nce precast, these beams are pretty massive themselves 鈥� about 50,000 pounds each and 24 feet long,鈥� Rad said. 鈥淭he cross-section is 3.5 feet wide by 7 feet deep with a lot of reinforcement and post-tensioning systems inside. It’s a very stout beam.鈥�

The beams, still being designed, will be able to handle 14,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. The six legs will be attached to a center hub about 17 feet in diameter, Rad said. Towers will be delivered to sites and bolted into the 鈥渉exapods.鈥�

鈥淭hen all the equipment has to be installed 鈥� electronics and propellers 鈥� so we can eliminate most of the concrete and make construction easier,鈥� he said.

A tower might stay in use for decades, Rad said, but once it is no longer needed, people will be able to move it.

鈥淲e can take the beams out and then reuse them somewhere else so the land can be plowed back into a cornfield,鈥� he said.

Rad said he is also researching new methods to produce steel that is twice as strong and concrete that is three times stronger.

Better ways of capturing wind energy

Raul Cal, professor in PSU’s Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, is studying wind energy for three proposals. Portland General Electric is providing grant money for one proposal and the National Science Foundation is covering the other two.

鈥淓ach one has a different scope, but all of them are looking toward how to increase capacity factors or be able to extract power out of wind farms in a better, more informed way,鈥� Cal said.

Specifically, PGE has anted up about $750,000 for the PSU lab to conduct research on its Biglow Canyon Wind Farm in the Columbia River Gorge.

鈥淭hey are interested in understanding what is happening with their farm and how they can product more energy,鈥� Cal said. 鈥淲e use wind tunnel experiments to try and replicate what they have and give them a better idea on how to harness the wind.鈥�

Many people worked on the project, but Cal said high school student Jorge Reyes made a significant contribution by spending three of his summers as an unpaid intern constructing the terrain.

Efforts to increase seismic strength

Thomas Schumacher, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at PSU, is working with associate professor Peter Dusicka on seismic research.

Schumacher, who joined PSU last year, also is continuing his collaboration with Erik Thostenson of the University of Delaware on 鈥渁 big federally-funded project鈥� looking at carbon nanotube sensing of seismic events.

The nanotubes form an electrically conducive network. When the skin is put on the structure, an electric current is applied to the network in different places. Once a structure deforms or experiences tension, the skin deforms as the nanotubes in that area move away from each other. The amount of change in the skin can then be measured to determine the severity of the damage or stress.

Schumacher said he is still in the process of building his lab at PSU and working on other research, such as acoustic emission monitoring that can measure the effect of real-time seismic events.

鈥淲e measure dozens of sensors in a network and using advanced signal processing can figure out the location and type of source and the nature of the source and capture it as it occurs,鈥� he said.

Other research can help measure damage from earthquakes by using ultrasounds to determine loads being carried by structures such as concrete columns.

鈥淲e can actually send stress waves through a material and determine the level of applied stresses on that element,鈥� he said.

Another experiment at PSU uses digital cameras to take videos of how buildings vibrate, Schumacher said.

鈥淲e use signal processing to analyze individual pixels and see how the pixel changes as a function of time,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e get information on frequency and in some cases even the amplitude or vibration or displacement.鈥�

Dusicka’s research concerns structural strength in seismic events. He is trying is to create a type of brace that becomes a 鈥渟acrificial鈥� element able to absorb some of the energy of a seismic event and perhaps ensure a bridge’s continued use.

鈥淎nd while that component gets damaged, it protects the rest of the bridge with the idea that you can come back and replace that component,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n effect, you are trying to have a sacrificial bit within the bridge that will hopefully protect the rest.鈥�

Typical bridges have two or three spans with several columns in between, Dusicka said.

鈥淭his strategy we’re pursuing right now is introducing these special braces into where the columns normally sit so that when an earthquake comes through, the braces take most of the damage and protect the rest of the columns,鈥� he said.