Effect of Chromated Copper Arsanate on the Mechanical Properties of Glue Laminated Eucalyptus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Chromated Copper Arsenate on selected mechanical properties of 10-year-old glue laminated Eucalyptus. Test specimens were prepared and tested for flexural properties, shear strength using a Universal Testing Machine in accordance with ASTM D198 and BS373. Destructive test method was used to test for both shear strength and the flexural properties and the soaking delamination test was used to test for the Delamination percentage. The results showed that the MOE and MOR decreased in the treated glulam samples by 19.1% and 13.3% respectively. The shear strength properties also decreased in the treated samples by 3.3%. Finally, no delamination was found in all glulams. The data was analyzed using the Levene’s test for the flexural properties and one way Analysis of Variance test for the shear properties. The results indicated that treated wood glulams had significantly lower MOE, MOR and Shear strength properties than that of the untreated glulams. It is recommended that glulams extracted from CCA treated eucalyptus should not be used for high structural purposes but could be used in low construction works.

Keywords: MOE, MOR, delamination percentage, shear strength