Congratulations to Jiloul Abdessamad on his successful PhD defense!
Congratulations to Jiloul Abdessamad for brilliantly defending his doctoral thesis in wood and bio-based materials engineering on April 4, 2024, under the enlightened supervision of Pierre Blanchet at the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics (FFGG), at Laval University, and Clément Boudaud at the École supérieure du bois et des matériaux biosourcés in Nantes. His project, entitled « Development of a structural composite based on corrugated panels », opens up new perspectives in materials engineering.
Congratulations Abdessamad on this remarkable achievement in your academic career! We wish you a future filled with success, happiness, and achievement!
The jury members were: Mr. David Pothier (President, FFGG), Mr. Pierre Blanchet (Research Director, FFGG), Mr. Clément Boudaud (Co-Research Director, École supérieure du bois et des matériaux biosourcés, Nantes), Mr. Alain Cloutier (Examiner, FFGG), Mr. Sylvain Ménard (Examiner, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi) and Mr. Pedro Alexandre Conti Bandini (External Examiner, Faculty of Engineering).
Thesis title: Development of a structural composite based on corrugated panels
Abstract
Today, large wood structures are made possible by the presence on the market of highly developed engineered wood materials. Typically, all these structural materials and their components are rectangular, full, and straight, or curved. It is rare to find a periodic geometry such as the corrugated shape in these wood-based materials, whereas this geometry is very common in metal structures and advanced composite materials. The corrugated configuration is considered a highly effective mechanical reinforcement mechanism for improving the capacity and stability of a thin, flat structure. This mechanism is highlighted in this research project, which aims to design and develop a structural composite based on corrugated wood-based panels to promote the use of biobased materials in construction in Canada.
Among the possible development options, Corruven’s Corrshield and Corrpack products are the basic raw materials for the design of a new structural composite material. As a first step, the mechanical properties of corrugated panels were characterized, to explore the potential and limitations of these products. In addition, potential structural applications for the composite based on these panels were identified. In a second step, specifications were drawn up for a product with a structural function. This was followed by the design of various possible structural products. This design was accompanied by prototypes of the new structural composite, which were tested to characterize them. The optimized composite material was mechanically characterized according to its potential for building applications. Finally, a numerical evaluation of the composite material was carried out. The aim of this evaluation is to validate the results of the mechanical characterization of the developed material, and to analyze and interpret its mechanical behavior.