Abstract
The effects of pre-treatments, the hot water extraction of wood meal and the addition of chemical ($CaCl_2$) to wood-cement water system on the properties of wood-cement composite such as modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), water sorption ratio and swelling ratio of resulting boards were studied in this experiment. The wood meals through 0.83mm(20 mesh) and retained on 0.42mm(35 mesh) screen were prepared from Pinus densiflora S. at Z. and Larix leptolepsis G. For hot water extraction, 500 grams of wood meal for each species were heated to boiling with 1,500ml of distilled water in 2-liter beaker for 6 hours. Every 2 hours, the wood meals were washed with boiling distil1ed water and reheated to boiling again. After 6 hours boiling, the boiled wood particles were collected by pouring this particles on 200 mesh screen. The collected particles then washed twice with hot distilled water and dried for 24 hours in an oven at $109{\pm}20^{\circ}C$. A mixture of 663.4 grams of cement with 331.7 grams of wood meal based on oven-dry weight were dry-mixed in a plastic vessel. The mixture was kneaded with 497.6ml of distilled water in the ratio of 1.5ml of water to a gram of wood meal. To add calcium chloride to the mixture as an accelerator, $CaCl_2$ 4% solution by weight per volume, was added to pine-or larch-cement board in the ratio of 3% to cement weight. To set wood-cement board, this mixture was clamped at 30cm ${\times}$ 30cm, in thickness of 1.5cm for 3 days at room temperature, declamped and then placed at open condition for 17 days. The target density was 1.0. The four specimens sized to 5cm in width and 28cm in length were used for MOR and MOE test for each treatment. After MOR test, the tested specimens were cut to the size of 5cm ${\times}$ 5cm for water sorption and swelling test. The twenty specimens used to measure the water sorption ratio (soaking 24 hours) and ten of these were used for swelling ratio measurement The results obtained were as follows: 1) Larch was not suitable for wood-cement boards because larch-cement board developed no strength, but pine showed 97.9kg/$cm^2$ by hot water extraction. 2) To increase MOR, hot water extraction was more effective than the addition of $CaCl_2$ in pine and larch because the $CaCl_2$ addition was seemed to speed up the ratio of cement hydration without reacting with the wood substances. 3) The water sorption ratio was lowered by the addition of $CaCl_2$ to wood-cement system because the chemical additive accelerated the rate of cement hydration. 4) In pine-cement board, the swelling ratio from 0.37 to 0.42 percent was observed in length and the swelling ratio from 0.88 to 2.0 percent in thickness. As a rule, the swelling ratio of wood-cement board was very low and the swelling ratio in thickness was higher than in length.