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Circular hollow sections of beech-laminated veneer lumber (LVL) for the use as temporary geotechnical soil nailing systems are currently being developed. Due to their permanent subsoil cement embedment, investigations of the bond line quality of the timber sections are essential. This paper presents the bonding properties of flat and curved beech LVL after cyclic conditioning in a water–cement grout solution aimed at inducing short- and long-term alkaline attack of the timber. In total, 409 and 69 samples were tested in tensile shear tests after short-term and long-term conditioning, respectively.
Three different adhesive systems, a one-component polyurethane adhesive, a melamine–urea–formaldehyde adhesive and a melamine–urea–formaldehyde adhesive modified by means of (polyvinyl)-acetate adhesive were investigated and compared. Short-term conditioning by submersion in boiling cement suspension was found to be a reliable method for testing the bonding performance rather than long-term conditioning. In the case of tensile shear tests of samples subjected to long-term treatment, wood material strength was the decisive criterion. Generally, tensile shear test samples of all investigated adhesives achieved reliable bonding for a pressing force up to 1.0 MPa. No relationship was recognised between the determined bonding failure and the wood properties tensile shear strength, wood failure percentage, fracture pattern and bulk density of veneers adjacent to the bond line.
For the determination of the bond line integrity of curved veneer poles, it was necessary to test bonding quality in a combined test using curved and flat samples and to compare tensile shear strength with data determined on reference samples in the same veneer population without bond line.
Innovative circular, hollow, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beech sections for use as temporary geotechnical soil reinforcement members are currently being developed. Appropriate surface gluing quality between the veneers is fundamental to this subsoil application of the permanently cement-embedded, engineered timber product. The circular cross-section geometry and the permanently high-alkaline environment of the structural member is not covered by presently standardized testing and conditioning methods for examining LVL surface bond line quality. The sample conditioning and tensile shear test method compliant with EN 302-1 (Adhesives for load-bearing timber structures—test methods—part 1: determination of longitudinal tensile shear strength, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, 2013) was modified to determine bonding parameters for circular, hollow LVL sections. Bond line curvature, groove cutting depth and sample geometry were found to greatly influence stress distribution, percentage of wood failure and tensile shear strength.
Short-term alkaline treatment of test samples did not significantly influence the bonding performance, wood failure percentage, tensile shear strength and fracture patterns. To improve tensile shear strength, adhesives with different material rigidities were used and compared. An orthotropic, elastic numerical analysis revealed a greater influence of adherent elasticity than adhesive elasticity on the stress distribution within the bond line. With regard to determining the bond line integrity of curved veneer poles, a sample geometry compliant with EN 302-1 (2013) was developed and numerically evaluated.
The Bode catchment (Germany) shows strong land use gradients from forested parts of the National Park (23 % of total land cover) to agricultural (70 %) and urbanised areas (7 %). It is part of the Terrestrial Environmental Observatories of the German Helmholtz association. We performed a biogeochemical analysis of the entire river network. Surface water was sampled at 21 headwaters and at ten downstream sites, before (in early spring) and during the growing season (in late summer). Many parameters showed lower concentrations in headwaters than in downstream reaches, among them nutrients (ammonium, nitrate and phosphorus), dissolved copper and seston dry mass. Nitrate and phosphorus concentrations were positively related to the proportion of agricultural area within the catchment. Punctual anthropogenic loads affected some parameters such as chloride and arsenic. Chlorophyll a concentration and total phosphorus in surface waters were positively related. The concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was higher in summer than in spring, whereas the molecular size of DOC was lower in summer. The specific UV absorption at 254 nm, indicating the content of humic substances, was higher in headwaters than in downstream reaches and was positively related to the proportion of forest within the catchment. CO2 oversaturation of the water was higher downstream compared with headwaters and was higher in summer than in spring. It was correlated negatively with oxygen saturation and positively with DOC concentration but negatively with DOC quality (molecular size and humic content). A principle component analysis clearly separated the effects of site (44 %) and season (15 %), demonstrating the strong effect of land use on biogeochemical parameters.
Ecological theory predicts that the relative importance of benthic to planktonic primary production usually changes along the rivers' continuum from a predomination of benthic algae in lower stream orders to a predomination of planktonic algae at higher orders. Underlying mechanisms driving the interaction between algae in these habitats, its controlling factors and consequences for riverine ecosystems are, however, only partly understood. We present a mechanistic analysis of the governing ecological processes using a simplified, numerical model and examine how abiotic factors and biotic interactions influence benthic and planktonic algae by changing resource competition. We compare the outcome of the model with the results of a factorial mesocosm experiment mimicking the parameter spaces of the model. The results show a remarkable similarity with regard to the temporal development of benthic and pelagic algal biomass and shifting dominance patterns. In particular we analyse the effects of the pathways of nutrient supply (upwelling from the hyporheic zone, direct supply to the surface water, or via both pathways) and grazing in a gradient of river depths. Our results show that detachment of benthic algae, sinking of planktonic algae and the pathway of nutrient supply are key processes determining the respective algal biomass distributions particularly in shallow and intermediate deep systems. Increasing nutrient supply increases algal biomasses, but does not change the general pattern of the interactions. Decreasing light supply decreases the dominance of planktonic algae, but increases dissolved nutrients. At intermediate to high grazing rates algal biomass can be controlled by grazers, but however, at high grazing rates, dissolved nutrients accumulate in the surface water. Our results indicate that nutrient pathways, resource competition and internal control by grazing need to be considered explicitly for the understanding and explanation of eutrophication phenomena in riverine ecosystems. As a consequence, ecologically effective eutrophication management of running water systems has to go beyond the control of nutrient emissions or the achievement of limiting threshold values in the receiving waters, but requires the consideration of the nutrient pathways (surface water versus groundwater) and the shifting biological controls from lower to higher order stream ecosystems.
Excessive amounts of nutrients and dissolved organic matter in freshwater bodies affect aquatic ecosystems. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability in nitrate (NO3−), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) was analyzed in the Selke (Germany) river continuum from three headwaters draining 1–3 km2 catchments to two downstream reaches representing spatially integrated signals from 184–456 km2 catchments. Three headwater catchments were selected as archetypes of the main landscape units (land use × lithology) present in the Selke catchment. Export regimes in headwater catchments were interpreted in terms of NO3−, DOC and SRP land-to-stream transfer processes. Headwater signals were subtracted from downstream signals, with the differences interpreted in terms of in-stream processes and contributions from point sources. The seasonal dynamics for NO3− were opposite those of DOC and SRP in all three headwater catchments, and spatial differences also showed NO3− contrasting with DOC and SRP. These dynamics were interpreted as the result of the interplay of hydrological and biogeochemical processes, for which riparian zones were hypothesized to play a determining role. In the two downstream reaches, NO3− was transported almost conservatively, whereas DOC was consumed and produced in the upper and lower river sections, respectively. The natural export regime of SRP in the three headwater catchments mimicked a point-source signal (high SRP during summer low flow), which may lead to overestimation of domestic contributions in the downstream reaches. Monitoring the river continuum from headwaters to downstream reaches proved effective to jointly investigate land-to-stream and in-stream transport, and transformation processes.
Forschungsbericht 2012
(2013)
Forschungsbericht 2013
(2014)
Forschungsbericht 2014
(2015)
Forschungsbericht 2015
(2016)