Physico-mechanical properties of cement bonded ceiling board developed from teak and African locust bean tree wood residue

Abstract

Over the years, the pursuit for locally sourced economical and environmentally safe materials has been on the increase in the development of composite boards. These locally sourced materials are organic materials from plants and livestock such as wood residue, feathers, rice husk, maize husk and bamboo fiber. Therefore, this study utilizes species of wood residue in the development composite ceiling boards. Ceiling boards were developed from teak and African locust bean tree wood residue using cement as a binder. The ceiling boards were made by varying the composite mass of the mix and mixing ratio of wood dust to cement. A constant load of 5 kN was used for the compaction process using a hydraulic pressing machine. Physico-mechanical properties of the ceiling boards such as moisture content, density, water absorption, drying shrinkage, tensile strength, and compressive strength were evaluated. The percentage of moisture content were 9.50 and 14.50% for teak and African locust bean tree wood dust, respectively. The values of density varied from 0.56 − 0.68 g/cm3. The water absorption ranged from 9.0 to 39.8% after 24 h immersion and drying shrinkage ranged from 8.60 to 35%. The maximum impact energy obtained is 98 J. The highest tensile, compressive and flexural strengths for the ceiling boards were 1.09, 0.82, and 0.56 MPa, respectively. The composite samples showed that ceiling boards made from teak wood dust is most suitable for interior use. Cement was found to be suitable as a binder for the development of ceiling boards.