Enhancing oriented strand board performance using wheat straw for eco-friendly construction

Wheat straw is an abundant and cheap agricultural by-product. This research aims to produce an outperform-oriented strand board utilizing wheat straw for sustainable construction. The produced rectangular specimens via the compression molding process were tested in terms of mechanical, hygroscopic, morphological, and sound isolation performances. The results compared to the commercial (OSB) EN 300: 2006 standard showed excellent mechanical properties in wheat straw-based panels with a density of 0.60 g.cm−3, with a remarkable 44.61% increase in flexural strength and 42.2% improvement in Young's modulus over wood-based OSB. Taking into consideration the hygroscopic properties, wheat straw-based boards showed superior swelling resistance, with WS-OSB-0.45 leading the way with a 23% reduction compared to commercial OSB. Water absorption was inversely related to density, with WS-OSB-0.60 reducing water absorption by 8.9% compared to commercial OSB. The contact angle measurements showed that wheat straw-based panels (WS-OSB-0.60 at 106° and WS-OSB-0.45 at 100.4°) had more hydrophobic surfaces than commercial OSB (88.1°). The wheat straw-based OSB panels, especially WS-OSB-0.45, achieved remarkable sound reduction, with an overall sound reduction value of 35.2 dB, outperforming WS-OSB-0.6 (34.9 dB) and commercial OSB (34 dB). These results demonstrate the viability of using wheat straw residues as an environmentally friendly alternative to wood in the production of panels for building, furniture manufacturing, and equipment packaging applications.