Pro Ligno (Jun 2014)
WOOD PRE-TREATMENT INFLUENCE ON THE HYDRATION OF PORTLAND CEMENT IN COMBINATION WITH SOME TROPICAL WOOD SPECIES
Abstract
The influence of three pre-treatment methods on the hydration characteristics of Portland cement in combination with three tropical hardwood species was investigated. The maximum hydration temperature and time to reach maximum hydration temperature were analysed for the wood-cement-water mixtures of the three species after removing inhibitory extractives of wood samples by extraction with 5% Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), cold and hot water after removing inhibitory extractives of wood samples. There were differences in the hydration reaction of the wood species with Portland cement using the different pre-treatment methods. The compatibility of the wood species with Portland cement improved following pre-treatment. Sodium hydroxide pre-treatment had the most significant effect followed by hot water. Terminalia ivorensis (Idigbo), and Antiaris africana (Oriro) species showed considerable improvement in their compatibility with Portland cement at 5% Sodium hydroxide pre-treatment with maximum hydration temperature of 65oC where Arere had 60.5oC where both cold and hot water were unable to raise the hydration temperature beyond 55.5oC . This study shows that the wood species requires more than cold and hot water extraction to make them suitable for wood cement composite materials as extraction with sodium hydroxide (1% solution) was found to be the most effective treatment for the wood species under investigation.
