Authors:Deka M; Das P; Saikia C.N
Abstract:Experiments were carried out to study dimensional stability, thermal degradation and termite (Odontotermes spp) resistant properties of thermosetting resin treated bamboo (Bambusa tulda Roxb.) in comparison to an untreated one. The dimensional stability of treated samples in terms of anti-shrink efficiency (ASE) was increased by 53.8061.18% at levels of 29.7330.14% weight percent gain (WPG) of the resins over the untreated one. The treated samples also retained bulking coefficient (BC; 7.568.74%) and moisture excluding efficiency (MEE; 23.5133.42%) after three cycles of repeated wetting and drying at these levels of WPG. The treatment also resulted in an improvement of static bending in terms of modulus of rupture (MOR) by 18.49% for PF (phenol formaldehyde), 14.21% for MF (melamine formaldehyde) and 10.34% for UF (urea formaldehyde) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) by 8.15% for PF, 7.18% for MF and 6.98% for UF at 29.73, 30.14 and 29.81 levels of WPG, respectively, over the untreated samples without any remarkable effect on specific gravity. The values of MOR and MOE of the treated samples showed negligible change after twelve months' exposure to termite attack under ambient environmental conditions, while the untreated sample was badly damaged by termite. The thermal behaviour of untreated and treated samples was studied using thermogravimetric (TG) and differential thermogravimetric (DTG) techniques at heating rate 20 and 30°C min1 in temperature range 30650°C. The kinetic parameters of untreated and treated samples were evaluated using the Coats and Redfern method. The treated samples were found to be thermally more stable than the untreated one.
Keywords:arthropod pests; bamboos; bending; chemic