Revista do Instituto Florestal (Dec 2017)
PHYSICAL-MECHANICAL WOOD PROPERTIES OF Myracrodruon urundeuva IN HOMOGENEOUS PLANTING
Abstract
As a result of its high density and durability, wood of Myracrodruon urundeuva (aroeira) is highly valued, and its exploitation in Brazilian primary forests has been prohibited by law since 1991. One way to maintain this status and, at the same time, supply the increased demand for this wood is through the establishment of plantations. Therefore, the knowledge of M. urundeuva wood properties in plantations with young trees is essential. Thus, we evaluated we evaluated some physical and mechanical properties of wood from 20-year-old M. urundeuva (aroeira) twelve trees in a homogenous plantation. Basic density was 770 kg m-3 and apparent density was 984 kg m-3. The anisotropy coefficient of 1.69 is considered regular, indicating that wood can be used in the manufacture of fine furniture, frames, boats, musical instruments, sports equipment or flooring. The wood presented good mechanical behavior, with an average strength for parallel compression of 53.84 MPa, MOE of 12632 MPa and MOR of 123.58 MPa. The wood was identified as class 40, thus showing potential for use in medium-sized structures and construction. Basic density and apparent density correlated positively with compression parallel to the grain and MOR. Wood quality, a positive characteristic, added to good technology, even in young trees, shows that values of physical and mechanical properties are suitable for various uses when compared to the same values of older trees based in specialized literature. Our results confirmed that this homogeneous planting was adequate to obtain M. urundeuva wood with such quality.
