Design Development of Wood-Plastic for Building Louver Façade

A wood-plastic louver was designed for use as a building façade. Development consisted of two parts. The first part was an experimental establishment of wood-plastic composite properties to be used in the design. This was not a straightforward procedure as wood-plastic properties not only varied due to natural material content but also due to size, and the actual section was not yet produced. The second part was to develop the section design via finite element analytical model. The wood-plastic louver section from the preliminary design must be modified to satisfy the strength and serviceability requirements. The design remedy included steel reinforcement as recommended. The development process led to a satisfactory design and a practical alternative suitable for both production and construction. The process can be applied to other designs of wood-plastic sections subjected to different loading conditions and applications.