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Lecture 4 - Wood

The document provides an overview of wood as a construction material, highlighting its properties, categories, and various wood products. It discusses the physical and mechanical characteristics of wood, including growth rings, density, and defects, as well as methods for drying and seasoning wood. Additionally, it covers types of wood products such as glulam, plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
9 views35 pages

Lecture 4 - Wood

The document provides an overview of wood as a construction material, highlighting its properties, categories, and various wood products. It discusses the physical and mechanical characteristics of wood, including growth rings, density, and defects, as well as methods for drying and seasoning wood. Additionally, it covers types of wood products such as glulam, plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard.

Uploaded by

mnorizzah2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecturer 5

Wood
Introduction to Wood

 One of the oldest known materials of construction


 Naturally renewable building material
 One of the most popular in light construction due to
 Simplicity in fabrication
 Lightness
 Reusability
 Environmental compatibility
Physical and Mechanical
Properties of Wood
 The physical and
mechanical properties of
wood varies
tremendously even
within a tree
Properties of Wood
Physical Properties of Wood

 A log or trunk is surrounded by a rough and dense


covering called bark
 Inside the bark exist a thin layer of wood cells
(cambium) where the growth of wood takes place
continuously
 Growth results in a ring like structure - annual ring
 Rapidly growing trees having wide annual rings produce
coarse-grained wood
 Slow-growing trees having narrower annual rings
produce fine-grained wood
Physical Properties of Wood

 Wood grain refers to the wood arrangement of wood


fibers
 Growth rings are found in most hardwood and softwood
except palm and coconut
 The centre of the log (pith) is surrounded by the annual
ring- approximate age of the tree
Physical Properties of Wood

 In most species, each annual rings appears in 2 layers


(inner and outer layer)
 The inner layer represent rapid spring growth refer as
springwood or early wood
 The outer layer represent heavier, harder, stronger
material refer as summerwood
 The proportion of summerwood to springwood effect
the density of wood, which turn effect its strength
Physical Properties of Wood

 The inner part of trunk (heartwood) is made of death


tissue and the primary function of this part is to provide
mechanical support to the tree
 The outer part of trunk is known as sapwood
 The difference of the density and strength between the
heartwood and sapwood are very small
 The sapwood is less durable and more permeable than
heartwood
Physical Properties of Wood

 A section of a branch
showing 27 annual
growth rings, pale
sapwood and dark
heartwood, and pith
(centre dark spot)
 The dark radial lines are
small knots
Categories of Wood

 Hardwood
 Has broad leaves which produce seeds in a shell
 Evergreen in the tropics and deciduous (lose their leaves
once a year) in temperate zone
 Example-Oak, Maple and Ash
 Softwood
 Come from coniferous tree which produce cones and has
needlelike leaves and generally evergreen
 Example- Larch, Pine and Redwood
Density of Wood

 The density of wood is defined as the mass per unit


volume
 It is related directly to porosity or proportion of the
voids.
Specific Gravity of Wood

 Specific gravity is the ratio between the density of


wood and the density of water
 The specific gravity is determine in three conditions
 Green
 Air-dry
 Oven-dry
Defects of Wood

 The strength and durability of wood affected by the


presence of defects
 Common defects are
 Cracks
 Knots
 Slope of grain
Shrinkage of Wood

 When the water in the cell cavities evaporates, no


reduction in cross-sectional dimension is seen
 When the wood dries further, the water is driven out
the cell wall, leading to changes in cross-sectioning
dimension is called shrinkage of wood
 The shrinkage varies with species, thickness of cell
walls, arrangement of cells and grain pattern
Drying of Wood

 The process of controlled drying of lumber to increase


its structural properties is known as seasoning
 Drying can
 Increase strength
 Lowering the shrinkage
 Improve the decay resistance
 Reduction in weight
 Better durability
Methods of Drying

 Air drying
 Kiln drying
Air Drying

 Air-drying reduces moisture content to between 15 and


20%
 For a 2.5cm thickness of timber air drying takes around
one year for hardwoods and six months for softwoods
 Timber poles are often dried this way
 The ends of the timber lose moisture fasted and are
sometimes painted to protect them
Air Drying
Kiln Drying

 This method reaches the desired moisture content


within a period of a few days to a week
 The maximum thickness of timber for kiln drying is
around 45mm
 Kilns can be electric, solar or fuel (e.g. oil) powered
Kiln Drying
Types of Wood Product

 Glulam (Glue-Laminated Timber)


 Panel products
 Veneered panels (Plywood)
 Non-veneered panels
 Particleboards
 Fibreboards
Glulam

 Consist of sawn lumber laminations bonded with an


adhesive so that the grain of all laminations runs
parallel with the long direction
 The strength of glulam is stronger in a longitudinal
direction and weaker in transverse direction
 These structural members are used as vertical columns
or horizontal beams, often in curved, arching shapes
Glulam
Veneered Panel (Plywood)

 Made of thin sheets of wood, the layers are glued together,


each with its grain at right angles to adjacent layers for
greater strength
 There are usually an odd number of plies, as the symmetry
makes the board less prone to warping, and the grain on
the outside surfaces runs in the same direction
 The plies are bonded under heat and pressure with strong
adhesives, usually phenol formaldehyde resin, making
plywood a type of composite material
 A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood
is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping,
and its general high degree of strength
Veneered Panel (Plywood)
Particleboards

 Particleboard is made from small particles of wood and


and is sometimes called chipboard, flakeboard,
splinterboard, waferboard, strandboard, and oriented
strainboard depending on their particles and their
orientation
 Particles are pieces of wood smaller than veneer sheet
but larger than wood fiber
 The raw materials for the manufacturing of particles
come from many sources, such as plywood mill wasted,
sawdust, round wood, planer shavings, and wood
residue
 Residues from the milling operation are commonly used
as particles
Particleboards
Fiberboard

 Fiberboard comes into two types,


 High density fiberboard (Hardboard)
 Medium density fiberboard
 Fibers are slender threadlike elements or a group of wood fibers
resulting from chemical or mechanical defiberization, or both
 A number of raw materials, such as coarse residues from other
forest products, bagasse, wastepaper, and pulp chips can be used
in manufacturer of fibers
 The raw materials are broken down into fibers through thermal-
mechanical treatment
 Then the fibers are interfelted under controlled conditions of hot
pressing
 This will cause the rebonding of the lignin, which in addition to the
binding agents added will produce a bonded panel products
Hard Density Fiberboard
Medium Density Fiberboard
The End

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