STUDIES OF PHYSICOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD AND WOOD PLASTIC COMPOSITE (WPC)

An attempt has been made to improve the quality of low grade wood through radiation induced wood plastic composite (WPC) formation in order to use these low grade woods as substitutes for high grade wood. Six kinds of local woods of Bangladesh (simul, korai, mango, jack fruit, teak, and garjon) were investigated. Both soft and hard wood varieties of these were selected. Ten vinyl monomers were used for the WPC. Improvement in the quality of wood was ascertained by determining change in physico-mechanical properties of wood. These properties were tensile strength, Young's modulus, and dimensional stability. Among all the woods investigated, simuls exhibited the best performance for WPC formation. It was found that the tensile strength and Young's modulus of WPC increased about 1.6 and 1.5 times, respectively, as compared with the strength and modulus those of untreated wood.