Wood formwork consists of panels and support systems, with the panels being the parts that shape the concrete, and the support systems stabilizing the panel position and bearing the upper loads. The quality of the formwork is crucial to the quality of concrete construction. Therefore, the material requirements for wood formwork are quite strict, as outlined below:
1. Foundation formwork uses pine boards, poplar boards, or eucalyptus boards, with a thickness of 20mm for beam side panels.
2. Main beam bottom formwork uses pine boards with a thickness of 40mm, while column formwork and floor formwork use 12 mm engineered wood panels.
3. The support system uses fir, with a minimum diameter of 70mm for small ends and a rectangular wood size of 400×500mm for joints, with steel pipe supports for the bottom layer.
4. The wood formwork and support systems should not use brittle, severely warped, or moisture-deformed wood.
The above are the material requirements for wood formwork. Each project choose the appropriate form of formwork according to the structure’s form and characteristics to get good technical and economic effects. For large projects, calculations should be carried out on the formwork and support systems to verify their rigidity, strength, stability, and their ability to withstand lateral pressure.
