SCAIM Seminar: Numerical Approaches to Solving the Problems of Utilising Wood

Wood is nature’s solution to the structural and hydraulic problems faced by the World’s largest living organisms-trees. The solutions to these problems are both elegant and energy efficient and are starting to inspire new (biomimetic) approaches to the design of novel materials. Wood in its native form, however, is still a very important material and sustains numerous industries that are vital to the economies of many countries, including Canada’s. The utilization of wood by these industries is constantly throwing up complex and important problems whose solution often benefits from an interdisciplinary approach involving the collaboration of biologists, physicists, chemists and mathematicians. This seminar will describe a range of fundamental and applied problems involving the utilization of wood that were solved by an interdisciplinary approach involving material scientists and mathematicians at The Australian National University. I will also introduce a new problem on the quantification of penetration of coatings into the porous microstructure of wood that could benefit from a similar interdisciplinary approach.