PHYSICAL-MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF Eucalyptus urophylla WOOD

Francisco A R Lahr,Juliano S Vasconcelos,Marta C De J A Nogueira,Victor A De Araujo,André L Christoforo

doi:10.1590/1809-4430-eng.agric.v37n5p900-906/2017

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Eucalyptus urophylla consists in a wood-producing species, which offers a natural multiple raw material of good quality for applications in rural and civil constructions. However, Eucalyptus urophylla still has a small utilization as building parts and elements, resulting from the possible ignorance and low diffusion of its structural possibilities. Thereby, the present research aims to measure the main thirteen mechanical properties of Eucalyptus urophylla wood for two different moisture contents, 12% and 30% (green wood). Furthermore, in these two conditions of moisture content evaluation, volumetric mass densities were also evaluated. At the end of this evaluation, which included 2688 determinations, all the obtained results were statistically treated with t-test at a 5% of significance level in order to evaluate the influence of moisture content in the evaluated properties. Twelve mechanical properties were significantly affected by moisture content, and the behavior pattern consisted in increasing the values of the properties with the reduction of the moisture content.

Highlights

The increasing consumption of wood products raises the use of wood from native forests.the implantation of planted forests constitutes a viable alternative for reducing the pressure exerted on native forests (Paiva et al, 2013)
Eucalyptus urophylla is present in Brazil (FAO, 1981; Gonçalves & Passos, 2000; Oliveira et al, 2005; Andrade et al, 2010; Guimarães JR. et al, 2012) from its introduction during the 1970s, through seeds harvested in several islands belonging to Indonesia (Rocha et al, 2006)
By reducing the moisture content from 30 to 12%, all the strength values evaluated indicated increases in their properties, evidenced by the increases of 22.39% (10.3 MPa) in the parallel compression, 33.85% (2.2 MPa) in normal compression, 6.77% (5.7 MPa) in parallel traction, 26.19% (1.1 MPa) in normal traction and 19.38% (17 MPa) in static bending (Table 3 )

Summary

Introduction

The increasing consumption of wood products raises the use of wood from native forests.the implantation of planted forests constitutes a viable alternative for reducing the pressure exerted on native forests (Paiva et al, 2013). Blake (Corbasson, 1986; Boland et al, 2006) This species is found in Indonesia (Vieira & Bucsan, 1980; Scanavaca Jr & Garcia, 2003a; Martins-Corder et al, 1996), Ivory Coast (Wencelius, 1983, Corbasson, 1986), Cameroon, Gabon, Guyana, Madagascar (Corbasson, 1986), Congo (Corbasson, 1986; Gouma 1998), Vietnam (Sein & Mitlöhner, 2011), Malaysia, Papua New Guinea (Soerianegara & Lemmens, 1993), among others. Eucalyptus urophylla is present in Brazil (FAO, 1981; Gonçalves & Passos, 2000; Oliveira et al., 2005; Andrade et al, 2010; Guimarães JR. et al, 2012) from its introduction during the 1970s, through seeds harvested in several islands belonging to Indonesia (Rocha et al, 2006)

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Conclusion