Outline presentation
1, identify introduction to wood and wood anatomy
Unique characteristic of wood
Variability of wood Properties
Wood as an industrial raw material
Identify characteristics of wood
Identify Variability of wood
Identify hard wood and soft wood
explain Wood industrial raw material
INTRODUCTION TO WOOD
AND WOOD ANATOMY
Wood is one of the most abundant renewable
natural resource in the bio-based industry.
Yet it is also one of the most complex materials.
It is prevalent in our everyday lives and the economy,
in wood-frame houses and furniture; newspapers,
books, and magazines; bridges and railroad ties;
fence posts and utility poles; fuel wood; textile
fabrics; and organic chemicals.
Wood and wood products are also a store for carbon,
thus, helping to minimize carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.
Cont......
Woody plant species are so diverse that they grow in
virtually every part of the world and can be harvested to
produce solid, liquid or gaseous energy feed-stocks.
Wood is composed of polymers, which are large organic
molecules of lignin and carbohydrates that are physically
and chemically bound together.
More than two-third of wood constitutes are these
polymers.
Wood is biological renewable substance and most
fascinating material owing to its very complex structure
and variety uses.
It is hard, fibrous tissue that comprises the major part of
stems, branches and roots of trees,
Wood Anatomy
Study of structure or architectural organization of
wood
It deals with nature and arrangement of its physical
and chemical building components
Study is done at macroscopic, microscopic and ultra-
structural level
1.1 Unique characteristics of wood
Wood has always been and continues to be a
material of great importance to mankind.
It is highly versatile.
It is relatively light in weight, yet has good strength
in both tension and compression; and provides
rigidity, toughness and insulating properties
1.1.1 Some Basic Characteristics of Wood
Wood has always been and continues to be a
material of great importance to mankind. It is
highly versatile.
It is relatively light in weight, yet has good strength
in both tension and compression; and provides
rigidity, toughness and insulating properties.
It can be bent or twisted into special shapes, and it
is readily worked, fastened and finished.
Growth of a Tree
The growth of a tree trunk takes place primarily by
the multiplication of cells on either side of a thin
layer called the cambium, which is immediately
under the bark.
This bark varies in color and texture, depending on
the species.
Composition of Wood
The main constituent of wood is cellulose, which
accounts for up to 70 per cent by weight of dry
wood substance.
There are two types; one, the alpha cellulose
which is the constituent of major importance in the
making of paper.
The main cementing action that bonds cells
together and imparts rigidity to the wood is
provided by lignin, in amounts from 18 to 28 per
cent.
Moisture in Wood
Water, which is an essential agent in the life process
of a tree, is present in large quantities in the tree and
in the green log after felling.
As wood has a highly cellular structure and since
the weight of the dry wood substance may be as
little as 20 to 30 per cub ft (the lower value being
for some softwoods) it is not surprising that fully
saturated wood may contain a weight of water
greatly in excess of the weight of dry wood
substance.
Cont......
The moisture content of "green", i.e. freshly cut,
lumber varies with the species and the portion of the
log from which it is cut.
Douglas fir, for example, has a relatively low
"green" moisture content.
The moisture content of freshly-sawn lumber
containing sapwood may at times exceed 100 per
cent of the dry weight.
Green wood begins to lose moisture as soon as it is
cut if the surrounding air is at less than 100 per cent
relative humidity.
The Strength of Wood
The basic strength properties representative of
various species are always established on the basis
of a large number of tests on clear specimens in the
air-dry condition.
Such values obtained for white spruce,
The compressive stress perpendicular to the grain
is about 450 psi at the proportional limit.
The compressive stress perpendicular to the grain
is about 450 psi at the proportional limit.
Cont......
The maximum tensile strength across the grain is
about the same;
The maximum shear strength parallel to the grain,
about 1000 pound per square.
These reduced strength properties in the cross-grain
directions introduce many special and interesting
considerations in design with wood for load-
carrying purposes.
1.1.2 Characteristic properties
of wood
All wood, regardless of its botanical origin, possesses
certain characteristics in common.
All wood is composed of wood cells , All wood is
cellular in structure with cell walls composed of a
characteristic mixture of polymers of cellulose, non-
cellulosic carbohydrates, and lignin, organized as a
reinforced matrix.
This accounts for a combination of elastic and
plastic responses of the cell wall to applied forces.
Cont......
Wood is anisotropic in nature -Wood exhibits
different physical properties when tested along its
three major directional axes.
This behavior arises from the structure and
organization of cellulose in the cell walls, the
elongated shape of the wood cell, and their
longitudinal-radial arrangement resulting from the
radial symmetry of the tree trunk.
Cont......
Wood is a hygroscopic substance - Wood loses and
gains moisture as a result of changes in the
atmospheric humidity and temperature.
Wood is biodegradable - Wood may be reduced to
its component simple sugars and lignin elements
through attack by organisms such as fungi, bacteria,
and certain insects, for instance, termites.
It can also be degraded by hydrolysis and
oxidation resulting from condition to which it is
exposed.
Cont......
Wood is combustible and source of various organic
chemicals
Wood is remarkably inert to the action of most
chemicals
Wood is durable when used properly
Wood is surprisingly durable when used under
conditions which are not deliberately favorable to
the wood, destroying agencies.
Wood has excellent insulating properties , Because
of its fibrous structure and the quantity of entrapped
air, wood has excellent insulating properties.
1.2 Variability of wood
Properties
Wood is an inherently variable substance because of its
origin as a product of metabolism of the living tree.
As a result, its properties are subject to wide variations
brought about by the physiology of the trees and the
external factors affecting its growth.
the two basic classes of trees ‐ the broad-leave odor
deciduous trees, that produce hardwoods, and the
coniferous or evergreen trees, that produce softwoods.
The terms “hardwoods” and “softwoods” are not
always descriptive because some soft woods are harder
than some hardwoods.
1.3 Wood as an industrial raw material
The trees from which lumber is produced are
classified as hardwoods or softwoods.
Although the woods of many hardwoods are hard,
and the woods of many softwoods are soft, that is
not the defining characteristic.
Hardwood trees include oaks, maples, walnuts,
cherries, lignum vitae it is hardest wood and also
include balsa, which has one of the softest and
lightest of all the woods Softwood trees, on the
other hand, have needles instead of leaves.
Cont......
They do not shed their needles in the winter, but remain
green throughout the year and are sometimes called
evergreens.
Softwood trees include pines, firs, hemlocks,
spruces, and redwoods.
Both hardwood and softwood lumber pieces are
graded according to the number and size of defects
in the wood.
Defects include knots, holes, pitch pockets, splits,
and missing pieces on the edges or corners, called
wanes.
Cont......
These defects primarily affect the appearance, but
may also affect the strength of the piece.
The higher grades are called select grades.
The lower grades are called common grades and
are used for general construction where the wood
will be covered or where defects will not be
objectionable.
Hardwoods may also be graded as firsts or
seconds.
Common grades are designated in descending order
of quality by a number such as #1 common, #2
common, and so on.
1.4. Knowledge of wood and better use
Wood is a fibrous and porous structural tissue of
wood trees and other wood plans.
This organic material made from natural cellulose
fibers is found in their roots and stems, growing
upward all the way to the tops of their canopy.
The main physical characteristic of wood fibers is
their strong tension that is created both by its
natural strength, and the way the fibers are
embedded in a matrix that very effectively resists
compression.
Cont......
Wood plays an important supporting role in a living
tree – it enables all woody plants a strong structure
on which they can grow and reach more sunlight
than surrounding plant life, to elevate their fruit
from the easy reach of animals and off course, it
conveys the nutrients and water between roots and
canopy.
Cont......
Before the creation of earliest human civilizations,
wood was extensively used by our ancestors as a
fuel for fire,
construction material,
for making tools,
furniture,
Wood as an industrial raw material
The trees from which lumber is produced are classified as hardwoods
or softwoods.
Although the woods of many hardwoods are hard, and the woods of
many softwoods are soft, that is not the defining characteristic.
Hardwood trees include oaks, maples, walnuts, cherries, lignum
vitae it is hardest wood and also include balsa, which has one of the
softest and lightest of all the woods Softwood trees, on the other
hand, have needles instead of leaves.
They do not shed their needles in the winter, but remain green
throughout the year and are sometimes called evergreens.
Softwood trees include pines, firs, hemlocks, spruces, and redwoods.
Both hardwood and softwood lumber pieces are graded according to
the number and size of defects in the wood.
Cont......
Primary e.g.
Round wood
Sawn wood
Wood-based panels
Plywood
Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)
Particleboard (chipboard)
Medium density fiber board
(MDF)
Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
Soft board/hardboard
Cont......
Secondary processed e.g.
Laminated panel board
Glue Laminated Timber (glulam)
Composite “I” beams
Coated wood and panels
Pressure (preservative) treated
Modified wood (chemical, physical modification
STRUCTURES OF WOOD
The anatomical structure of wood affects strength
properties, appearance, resistance to penetration by
water and chemicals, resistance to decay, pulp
quality, and the chemical reactivity of wood.
To use wood most effectively requires knowledge
of not only the amounts of various substances that
make up wood, but also how those substances are
distributed in the cell walls.
Cont......
Woods are divided into two broad classes, usually
referred to as hardwoods and softwoods.
Hardwood trees (angiosperms, i.e., plants with
covered seeds) generally have broad leaves, are
deciduous in the temperate regions of the world,
and are porous, i.e., they contain vessel elements.
Softwood trees (conifers or gymnosperm, ie, plants
with naked seeds) are cone bearing generally has
scale like or needlelike leaves, and nonporous, i.e.,
they do not contain vessel elements
2.1. The macroscopic structure
of wood
Common Characteristics of Tree Structure
Chemical Composition of Wood
All wood is composed of cellulose, lignin, ash-
forming minerals, and extractives formed into a
cellular structure.
The characteristics and amounts of these
components and differences in cellular structures
result in significant variations.
Cont......
Cellulose is the principal component of the cell walls
of trees. It also makes up the cell walls of other
plants, including all the higher plants, most algae, and
some fungi. It is the most important component for its
effect on the properties of wood.
Hemi cellulose, composed of shorter molecules than
cellulose, makes up a large part of wood.
It is also important for some properties of wood.
Cont......
Lignin can be thought of as the glue that holds the
wood (cellulose and hemi-cellulose) together. Lignin is
important because it gives rigidity to the cells so that a
tree can grow large and tall.
The ash content of wood is made up of inorganic
minerals, primarily calcium, potassium, and
magnesium.
Manganese and silica are two other common
minerals. If silica is found in sufficient amounts
(0.5% oven-dry1 weight), it can dull machining
equipment.
Cont......
Extractives Common characteristics that we use to
identify different woods with the naked eye come from
extractives in the wood.
Without extractives, wood would have to be identified
solely by its anatomical structure.
Extractives are made up of an extremely wide range of
organic compounds.
. Extractives give certain woods their resistance to insect
or fungi attack.
Many useful chemicals are made from the extractives
found in trees.
How a Tree Grows Site of New Growth
• In both hardwoods and softwoods, new growth,
including new wood and new bark, occurs as a
sheath covering the main stem, branches, and twigs
New Growth of Bark
Bark is an important element in tree growth The outer
bark protects the tree from the outside world and
against extreme weather elements.
It helps keep moisture in the tree during dry
periods.
It further protects the tree against diseases and
insects
The inner bark or phloem acts as the pipeline
through which the food produced in the leaves
passes to the rest of the living tree.
Cont......
This section of cells lives for only a short time before it
becomes part of the outer bark.
Between the bark and the wood is a thin layer of living
cells (those that contain protoplasm) known as the cambial
layer or cambium.
The cambium represents the growing part of the trunk.
Technically speaking, the cambium is only one cell thick.
This cell produces bark on one side and wood on the other.
Hormones, known as aux ins, are produced in leaf buds in
the spring.
Sapwood
Sapwood, or new wood, provides a pipeline for the
movement of water and nutrients through the trunk
and into the leaves, where the process of
photosynthesis occurs.
In this process, oxygen is released into the air and
carbon dioxide is taken up.
Sunlight and chlorophyll, the chemical that causes
leaves to have a green color, are two other important
components for photosynthesis.
Sap moves down the tree through the
phloem.
The sap, containing water and nutrients, is
transported horizontally to the cambium through
structures called wood rays.
Wood rays also act as storage areas for the
carbohydrates that the tree uses as food.
Heartwood
Heartwood forms the central support of the tree.
Although it is made up of dead cells, it will never
decay or lose strength as long as the sapwood and
bark remain intact.
Accumulation of extractives gives the heartwood
of many species a darker color than that of the
sapwood.
Annual Growth Rings
In temperate climates, where there is a growing season
followed by a dormant season, the seasonal production of
new wood produces the annual growth rings that are visible
on the cross section of a tree stem.
The larger cells, called early-wood or springwood, form as
the tree is more actively growing.
The smaller cells, called latewood or summerwood, form as
the tree is growing more slowly
Growth rings on the lower portion a tree trunk can be
counted to estimate the age of a tree, but false rings can
sometimes form because of drought, late frosts, or
defoliation by insects or harsh weather..
Wood Rays
Most transfers of water, nutrients, and chemicals
occur up and down in a tree. However, there is some
transfer across the tree.
Sap moves down the tree through the phloem. The
sap, containing water and nutrients, is transported
horizontally to the cambium through structures
called wood rays.
Wood rays also act as storage areas for the
carbohydrates that the tree uses as food
Three Primary Surfaces of Wood
Because of the way trees grow, you can generally view
three very different surfaces of wood, including
transverse, radial, or tangential surfaces The transverse
or cross-sectional surface is what you see when you look
at the end of a board or log, and down on a tree trunk.
Growth rings are very apparent and appear as part of a
circle on this surface.
The radial surface parallels the stem and passes through
the pith. If you split a log in half, you will produce two
radial surfaces.
The tangential surface is named because it is the
surface tangent to the growth rings.
Cont......
The tangential surface is named because it is the
surface tangent to the growth rings.
It is perpendicular to the direction of the wood rays.
The three surfaces of wood are important because
wood structures appear very different depending on
which surface is being viewed.
Wood workers can alter the appearance of their
wood projects by working with the different
surfaces for the same kinds of wood.
Cont......
The trunk is composed of various materials present in
concentric layer.
The cross-section of a tree trunk is made up of six
principal layers.
From the outside of tree to the inside, are outer bark,
inner bark (phloem), cambium, sapwood, heartwood
and pith.
The outer-most section is a ring of bark made up of
two layers: an outer layer of dead corky material, the
outer bark, and an inner layer of live bark, the phloem.
Cont......
The outer bark is composed of a dead phloem of
dry corky material.
It’s provide mechanical protection to the softer
inner bark and also limits evaporative water loss.
The next layer is the cambium, which continuous
ring of a reproductive tissue between bark and
wood.
Its responsible for producing both tissue (new
phloem and xylem).
The thickness of cambium varies from species to
species.
Cont......
The innermost layer of a stem is the xylem. Xylem
composed of three structures those are sapwood,
heartwood and pith.
The trunk is composed of various materials present in concentric
layer.
The cross-section of a tree trunk is made up of six principal
layers.
From the outside of tree to the inside, are outer bark, inner bark
(phloem), cambium, sapwood, heartwood and pith.
2.2. Microscopic structure of
wood
Wood cells—the structural elements of wood tissue
—are of various sizes and shapes and are quite firmly
cemented together.
These cells differ in size and shape that is
depending upon their physiological role in the tree.
Wood is heterogeneous tissue made up of several
different kinds of cells.
In general, seven major types of cells are found
either in softwood and hardwood species.
Cont......
Those are vessel element, tracheid's, ray
parenchyma, ray tracheid's, axial
parenchyma/longitudinal parenchyma cell, fiber and
epithelial cells of resin duct.
Vessel element is one of the cell types found in
xylem, the water conducting tissue of plant. Its
typically found in the angiosperm but absent from
gymnosperm.
The cell wall of vessel is strongly lignified and both
end there are openings that connect the individual
vessel element.
2.3. Different structure of Softwood and
Hardwood
2.3.1. Micro structure of soft wood
The fundamental differences between woods are
founded on the types, sizes, proportions, pits, and
arrangements of different cells that comprise the
wood.
These fine details of structure can affect the use of
a wood.
Softwoods
The structure of a typical softwood is relatively
simple.
The axial or vertical system is composed mostly of
axial tracheid's, and the radial or horizontal system
is the rays, which are composed mostly of ray
parenchyma cell
Tracheid's are long cells that are often more than
100 times longer (1 to 10 mm) than wide and they
are the major component of softwoods, making up
over 90% of the volume of the wood.
Hardwoods
The structure of a typical hardwood is much
more complicated than that of a softwood.
The axial system is composed of fibrous
elements of various kinds, vessel elements in
various sizes and arrangements, and axial
parenchyma in various patterns and
abundance.
Vessels
Fibers
Axial Parenchyma
Wood Identification
The identification of wood can be of critical
importance to the primary and secondary
wood using industry
Lumber graders, furniture workers, those
working in the industry, and hobbyists often
identify wood without laboratory tools.
Wood identification by means of molecular
biological techniques is a field that is still in
its infancy.
Differences between hardwood
and softwood
Wood is incredibly versatile build material, and
thousands of variations in its internal structure,
species of the tree, and the processing can lead to
the different characteristics of the finished products.
The most common way all woods are differentiated
is the classification of hardwoods and softwoods.
The wood from confiner-type trees (such as Pine) is
called softwoods, while the wood from usually
broad-leaved di cotyledons (such as oak) are called
hardwoods.
Hardwood
Hardwood trees are usually regarded as premium
types of wood.
They come from trees that most of the time
have very slow growth and very dense cellulose
fiber structure
While the wood harvested from the hardwood trees
is usually tough to be processed due to its hardness,
the finished products have the ability to withstand
time and outdoor elements much better than those
created from less durable softwoods.
Types of Hardwood
While the most famous (and most expensive) type
of hardwood is mahogany, other types are also very
well represented on the worldwide market,
including:
Oak
Maple
Basswood
Cherry wood
Walnut wood
Softwood
• Softwood trees (any three that are producing
not leaves, but cones) are regarded to
produce mid and low-tier quality wood that
can be used for the creation of wooden
objects and furniture with several limitations
in regard their durability, strength, and
endurance of the final product.
Types of Softwood
• While softwoods can be used in construction,
furniture manufacture and more, one of the largest
use case scenarios is in the production of
manufactured wood – chipboard, fiberboard, and
plywood.
Pine
Spruce
Cedar
Fir&Larch
PROPERTIES OF WOOD
Strength
Physically, wood is strong and stiff but, compared
to a material like steel, it's also light and flexible.
It has another interesting property too.
Metals, plastics, and ceramics tend to have a fairly
uniform inner structure and that makes
them isotropic: they behave exactly the same way in
all directions.
Wood is different due to its annual-ring-and-grain
structure.
Durability
One of the best things about wood is how long it
lasts.
Browsing through the daily news, you'll often read
that archeologists have unearthed the buried
remains of some ancient wooden article a
wooden tool, perhaps, or a simple rowboat or the
remnants of a huge building that are hundreds or
even thousands of years old.
Providing a wooden object is properly preserved
(something else we discuss later), it will easily
outlast the person who made it.
Wood and water
Wood has many other interesting characteristics.
It's hygroscopic, which means that, just like a
sponge, it absorbs water and swells up in damp
conditions, giving out the water again when the air
dries and the temperature rises.
Water is a nature constituent of all parts of a living
tree.
In xylem portion, water (moisture) commonly
makes up over half the total weight; that is, the
weight of water in green wood is commonly equal
to or greater than the weight of dry wood substance.
Cont......
Wood is a porous material that contains air and
water as well as wood substances.
Wood loses or gains moisture depending on
the environmental conditions to which it is
exposed, thus its weight is not constant.
Volume of a piece of wood is also not
constant.
Wood shrinks and swells as it
loses and gains moisture
Importance of moisture in wood
Moisture content (MC), in a certain range, influences
Physical properties (density, colour etc)
Mechanical properties (strength properties, stiffness, hardness
etc )
Machine ability
Calorific value
Thermal conductivity,
Yield and quality of pulp and
Resistance of wood against decay.
Drying, impregnation, finishing and other processing of
wood.
Moisture Content (MC) definition
Moisture content of wood is weight of water in
wood expressed as a fraction, usually a percentage,
of the weight of oven dry wood.
The difference in the two values is assumed to be
due to loss of water by evaporation during drying.
MC% = Initial weight – Oven dry weight x 100%
Oven dry
weight
Wood and energy
It's a relatively good heat insulator which comes in handy
in building construction), but dry wood does burn quite
easily and produces a great deal of heat energy if you heat
it up beyond its ignition temperature the point at which it
catches fire, anywhere from around 200–400°C, 400–
750°F).
wood can absorb sound very effectively another useful
property in buildings, where people value sound
insulation shutting out their neighbors
Environmentally friendly
Wood fuel (a type of biomass) can be an
environmentally friendly form of renewable energy.
Wood was one of the first natural materials people
learned to use, and it's never lost its popularity.
Forestry is a rare example of something that has the
potential to be completely sustainable: in theory,
Logging can be hugely environmentally damaging,
whether it involves clear cutting a tropical rainforest
or selectively felling mature trees in old-growth
temperate woodland. .
