Thermal Conductivity of Three Different Wood Products of Combretaceae Family; Terminalia superb, Terminalia ivorensis and Quisqualis indica.

Abstract

The uses of wood and wood based materials in everyday life ranging from domestic to industrial applications had called for renewed updating of the information on various thermal properties of the materials at different stages. The ability of wood materials to withstand shock and deformation depends basically on their thermal responses at specific temperature and time. The study examines the thermal behavior of three wood species of the family of combretaceae (Terminalia superb, Terminalia ivorensis and Quisqualis indica) using the modified Lee’s method. Within an interval of time, the thermal agitation in the samples increases as the temperature increases, after which thermal stability was attained.  The thermal agitation is seen to be more prominent during the rising temperature than at the falling temperature. All samples attained stability after about 105 minutes of continuous agitation during the rising temperature and much more faster at the falling temperature. In addition, the thermal conductivity values obtained for the samples fall within the general range of conductivity (0.1-0.8 Wm^-1K^-1) for wood materials.

Key words: Wood materials, thermal conductivity, Lee’s method, temperature and time.