Property gradients in oil palm trunk (Elaeis guineensis)

Abstract

Since the structure of oil palm wood varies dramatically, the property gradients of oil palm wood within a trunk are of great interest. In this study, the physical (density, water uptake and swelling in the radial direction) and mechanical properties (bending modulus of elasticity and strength, compressive modulus of elasticity and strength in the direction parallel to the fiber, compressive strength in the direction perpendicular to the fiber and shear strength in the direction parallel to the fiber) of oil palm wood for a whole trunk were examined. The water uptake, compressive strength in the direction perpendicular to the fiber, shear strength in the direction parallel to the fiber, bending modulus of elasticity and strength and compressive modulus of elasticity and strength in the direction parallel to the fiber appeared to be independent of trunk height but tended to be related to the relative distance from surface or density by a single master curve. However, the swelling in the radial direction of the oil palm wood was not correlated with the relative distance from the surface, trunk height or density. Finally, property map of oil palm wood for a cross section at any height was prepared for practical use.

Fruehwald-Koenig, K.1); Heister, L.2): Macro- and Micromechanical Behavior of Oil Palm Wood (Elaeis guineensis JACQ.): Tensile, Compression and Bending Properties

“…The power law relationship gave a better t for strength and stiffness with the density, showing similar or higher R 2 compared with those obtained from linear relationship. Similar results are reported fromRich (1987b),Srivaro et al (2018a) andSrivaro et al (2018b). Therefore, in this study, the power law relationship is used to plot all experimental results of elastomechanical properties.…”

“…Also, the studies often examined very different trunk areas (regarding cross-section and height in the palm) and thus studied very different density ranges (e.g. Ratanawilai et al (2006), Erwinsyah (2008), Tufashi (2013) used mostly test material from the peripheral of the trunk with higher density; Srivaro et al (2018a) used test specimens from sections with comparable lower density), therefore the results of the various investigations are hardly comparable with each other. And even at the same density, the origin of the height and the age of the trunk has a considerable in uence on the macromechanical properties of the oil palm wood (Killmann and Lim 1985).…”

Radial variability of fibrovascular bundle properties of salacca (Salacca zalacca) fronds cultivated on Turi Agrotourism in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

“…has a higher density than the inner position. The density variability of FVB from S. salacca frond similar is similar to the coconut tree (Fathi et al 2014;Srivaro et al 2020) as well as oil palm trunk (Ramle et al 2012;Abe et al 2013;Srivaro et al 2018a), and this density is influenced by percentage vascular area and fiber area. Srivaro et al (2018b) stated anatomical variability in a palm tree depends on the size of the vascular bundle.…”

The fabrication and performance of plantable bio-pots from thick sheets of oil palm trunk

“…The bonding area of oil palm trunk sheets at the sidewall was separated, as shown in Fig 3(a). The outer zone of the oil palm trunk is composed with a rich portion of the vascular bundle cells that contribute to the density and strength of the trunk (Srivaro et al 2018). So, the plantable bio-pots fabricated from the outer zone of the oil palm trunk gave the highest average ultimate compression loads over others zones of trunk.…”

“…The portion between vascular bundle cells and parenchyma cells plays a key role in determining the physical and mechanical bulk properties, as well as the chemical composition (Darwis et al 2013;. The largest proportion of vascular bundle cells is found in the outer zone of trunk, and their prevalence gradually decreases towards center of the trunk, while the wood bulk density simultaneously drops from 420 kg/m 3 to 270 kg/m 3 on coming from the outer zone to the inner zone of trunk (Srivaro et al 2018). The cell arrangement in the oil palm trunk, discussed above, is useful for modifying its properties by thermal compression (Choowang and Hiziroglu 2015;Hamzah et al 2017;Muzakir et al 2020).…”