Influence of CCA-A preservative on physical-mechanical properties of Brazilian tropical woods

Abstract

Fast-growing species are gradually being used more in the Brazilian timber market. Such species are more susceptible to deterioration and require conservative treatment to prolong their service life. This work analyzed the influence of the chromated copper arsenate oxide (CCA-A) treatment on the physical-mechanical properties of the tropical woods Simarouba amara (C20), Cedrelinga catenaeformis (C30), and Erisma uncinatum (C40), which were chosen to cover the three lower strength classes, as prescribed by Brazilian Standard Norm. The CCA-A was applied to the wood with the vacuum-pressure process, which could increase the amount of surface defects and weaken the wood properties. To investigate the influence of this process, complete characterization of the species with and without CCA-A was performed, and a Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (5% significance level) was applied. Also, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and energy dispersive spectra (EDS) were obtained to investigate the behavior of the preservative at the cellular level. Through the obtained results, it was concluded that the CCA did not affect the physical-mechanical properties of the studied species.

Estimation of compression and shrinkage properties of Brazilian tropical timber through porosimetry analysis by mercury intrusion

“…Table 1 presents the properties that were evaluated for the eight wood species as well as the results from the statistical analysis. The average values of the tested properties were, for the most part, close to those of literature such as Almeida et al (2019), Lahr et al (2016), and the Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas (2021). Any differences were due to differences in the wood species lots and in the sample's moisture content (Segundinho et al 2017).…”