Paul Crovella

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | SUNY-ESF · Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management

Although lignin is a promising candidate as a source of polyol for producing eco-friendly polyurethane foam (PUF), its direct application has limitations, primarily stemming from the brittleness of the resulting products and poor processibility at high lignin loadings. To address these technical challenges, we introduced an effective co-solvent for...

Infrared Thermography (IRT) is a common approach used in building inspection for identifying building envelope thermal anomalies that cause energy loss and occupant thermal discomfort. Detecting these anomalies is essential to improve the thermal performance of energy-inefficient buildings through energy retrofit design, and correspondingly reduce...

There are millions of older buildings in the colder climate regions of the world where envelope upgrades are needed to improve the indoor quality of buildings, reduce energy costs, and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study assessed the global warming potential (GWP) with and without accounting for CO2 uptake in trees (biogenic carbon) fo...

The perpendicular orientation of the cross-layer (s) makes Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) susceptible to reduced stiffness in out-of-plane bending. Orienting the cross layers at angles other than 90° could provide cost-effective layup customization for fabrication. This customization improvement has the potential to allow production of a panel with a...

Since the introduction of Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) in Austria in the early 1990s, the adoption of this 90°-crosswise-laminated product has seen exponential growth worldwide. Compared to traditional laminated timber products (e.g., glulam), CLT provides improved dimensional stability but with reduced out-of-plane bending stiffness. To improve th...

Carbon stored in harvested wood products (HWPs) can play an important role in climate change mitigation and needs to be accounted for accurately and consistently. This study reviewed the features of previous HWP carbon accounting frameworks and discussed potential improvements for a more complete assessment of all HWP contributions to net zero carb...

Wood deformation due to moisture adsorption and desorption in the cell wall components challenges the dimensional stability of multi-layer wood-based panels. This is a common issue in timber products with single board products and parallel glued layers (such as Glued-laminated Timber; GLT). Orienting the inner layers of timber products at an angle,...

The perpendicular orientation of the cross-layer (s) makes Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) susceptible to rolling shear failure and reduced stiffness in bending. Under out-of-plane bending, rolling shear failure occurs in the cross layers along the radial-tangential plane. This weakness in CLT panels could be improved by varying the grain orientation...

Among all the elastic constants of wood that are required for the engineering design of wood structures,only the modulus of elasticity in the longitudinal (L) direction (E0 or EL) is readily available or can be readily measured for the majority of species. Longitudinal and tangential moduli of elasticity and shear moduli are required to predict the...

Construction management education is increasingly adopting innovative learner-centered technology-rich approaches to prepare students for leadership roles in the construction industry. Still, there is a need for evidence-based studies to measure the effectiveness of such approaches and their transferability at different institutions. Consequently,...

Existing buildings are one of the most important sources of carbon emissions in the United States, accounting for a larger energy-sector use than transportation or industry. Within total building energy use, the largest impact is from space heating and cooling. More than half of the buildings in the United States have major air leakage and inadequa...

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has set a goal of 30% reduction in energy use intensity (EUI) in the building sector by 2030. The majority of opportunities to meet this clean energy goal will be in retrofitting the existing building stock. Approximately 50-90% of energy reduction of existing buildings has been achieved through deep ret...

In recent years, Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) has experienced exponential growth internationally, fostering substantial awareness and inter¬est in this renewable construction material. The increasing adoption of CLT in countries and regions of world is resulting in considerable manufacturing investment in engineered wood products more generally. Fa...

One specific characteristic of Cross-laminated Timber (CLT), as an orthogonal laminar structure compared to a uni-directional timber composite such as glued laminated timber (GLT), is its intra-laminar shear flexibility due to rolling shear in the cross layers. Rolling shear (RS) properties in CLT are critical for the composite flexure of the layer...

The adoption of Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) as a building product has seen exponential growth in Europe, Oceania, and North America during the last decade. However, a challenge to the optimization of CLT in floor systems is the panel’s vibration characteristics for out-of-plane loading. This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations...

Recognizing the need for students to earn professional sustainability credentials and the desire for our higher education institutions to operate their facilities as sustainably as possible, we launched the project in 2018 at three SUNY campuses: Poly, ESF, and Oneonta. New green building courses were created, including courses for online delivery,...

Lower grade material of three previously untested species (Eastern White Pine, Red Maple, and White Ash) were fabricated in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels and tested to determine their mechanical properties. The results were compared to the ANSI/APA PRG-320 production standard for CLT. Both of the hardwood species met requirements for the V2 s...

Objectives: Determine the relative impact of 11 building wellness features on preference and on the ability to deliver/receive quality care for two groups: patients and caregivers. Background: The impact of building features that promote wellness is of increasing interest to the building owners, designers, and occupants. Methods: This study pe...

A method for non-destructive determination of the initial rotational stiffness of timber joints using the natural frequency of vibration of the beam is presented. The rotational stiffness of the joint is defined as “k”, and the bending stiffness of the member is defined as EI/L. The ratio of joint stiffness to the bending stiffness (k/EI/L or kL/EI...

The restoration or rehabilitation of timber structures requires that the structural system be analyzed for determining load-bearing capacity. This analysis requires that properties of both the members and the connections be determined for accurate modelling. A number of non-destructive approaches have been developed to determine the structural prop...

An elastic foundation model was used to determine the load distribution along the tooth array of four metal connector plate types. The load was not uniformly distributed along any plate type. In three out of four plate types, the row next to the centerline was found to transfer the highest load. One plate type which had uniform tooth layout was mod...

A method for determining the rotational stiffness of timber joints using the natural frequency of vibration of the beam is presented. Reviewed research shows that joint stiffness is important for frame behavior when the relative value of joint stiffness exceeds the beam flexural stiffness (α >1). Lab results show that vibration could predict joint...