Conductivity and density of woods used in southern Brazil

Abstract

Considering that wood is a building material with low environmental impact, this paper presents experiments to characterize the thermal conductivity and apparent density of three wood species, eucalyptus, pine, cumaru, and panel. Tests were by NBR 7190 and ASTM C518 – 04. The average value of the apparent density at 12% humidity of Eucalyptus grandis was 523 kg/m³, Pinus taeda L. was 614 kg/m³, and Dipteryx odorata was 1,012 kg/m³, with a variation about the literature of up to 22%. As for thermal conductivity, there was variation for samples of the same species, with an increase of 30% for eucalyptus according to thickness. The results indicate the importance of the regional characterization of wood. Related to the OSB panel, its thermal conductivity was 0,0981 W/(m.K) e 0,1092 W/(m.K) according to the thickness