Anatomical, physical, and mechanical properties of four pioneer species in Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the anatomical, physical, and mechanical properties of four pioneer species, i.e., batai (Paraserianthes moluccana), ludai (Sapium baccatum), mahang (Macaranga gigantea), and sesendok (Endospermum malaccense). Correlation of factors influencing density, shrinkage, and mechanical properties were also discussed. Samples were obtained from the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) campus. From the result obtained, these four pioneer species characterised by medium-to-large vessel with absent of tyloses and gum deposit, fine ray, thin walled fibre, runkel ratio less than 1.0, low in density, and mechanical properties. Sesendok has significantly higher value in fibre length, fibre diameter, fibre lumen diameter, fibre wall thickness, vessel diameter, density, MOR, MOE, compression parallel to grain, and shear parallel to grain compared to the other three pioneer species which were 2001 µm, 45 µm, 35 µm, 5.1 µm, 300 µm, 514 kg/m 3 , 79.5 N/mm 2 , 9209 N/mm 2 , 38.7 N/mm 2 , and 10.1 N/mm 2 , respectively. Between these four pioneer species, ludai has significantly higher in runkel ratio which was 0.57, whereas mahang shows significantly higher in slenderness ratio and number of vessels/mm 2 which were 50.2 and 5 vessel/mm 2 , respectively. On the other hand, batai has higher tangential, radial and longitudinal shrinkage compared to ludai, mahang, and sesendok which were 3.0%, 2.4%, and 0.8%, respectively. Based on the basic property study, batai, ludai, mahang, and sesendok could be suitable for pulp and paper, plywood, light construction, furniture, interior finishing, and general utility. Fibre length, fibre wall thickness, and vessel diameter correlated significantly with density and mechanical properties. Shrinkage and mechanical properties were significantly influenced by density.

Anatomical and physical properties of three lesser-known timber species from Malaysia

“…In addition, shrinkage was also affected by other anatomical properties, i.e., fibre length, fibre diameter, and wall thickness, with weak to moderate correlation. Similar results were also observed by Toong et al (2014) and Hamdan et al (2020) during the study of commercial Malaysian timbers and pioneer species, respectively.…”

“…Lim et al (2016) stated that a roughed surface is caused by picking-up the grain, due to the presence of an interlocked grain. According to Hamdan et al (2020), the fibre thickness is related to the density and strength. As shown in the Table 1, mahang, medang, and terap have a thinner fibre wall, which indicated a lower density.…”

“…Therefore, study on the anatomical properties is essential to provide indication of the wood properties. Besides that, based on the anatomical properties, the potential product of the timber could also be predicted, e.g., timber with thickest fibre wall is usually related to a high density and mechanical properties, which will make the timber suitable for heavy duty purposes (Hamdan et al 2020). In addition, the physical properties, including density and shrinkage, are also very important to study.…”

Trachea features and fiber dimensions of fast-growing tree: A case study on wood samples from eastern Indonesia

“…The fiber wall thickness showed about more than half examined species have thin wall, 4-5 µm (Table 1). This size is still in the range of cell wall thickness of other fast-growing species such as Macaranga gigantea (4.4 µm) and Endospermum malaccense (5.1 µm) that observed in previous study [22]. In addition, there is also another species of fast-growing trees with very thin wall thicknesses such as Shorea leprosula (2.02 µm) and Shorea parvifolia (2.00 µm) [23].…”

“…Therefore, the measured regression pattern cannot reflect the desired pattern. Several relationships between wood density to the fiber dimension were proposed by Hamdan et al [22]. The long fiber cells and thick fiber walls were related to the high wood density, while the short, thin fiber walls and also large diameter of the vessel were related to the low wood density.…”