Flow Deformation Characteristics of African Blackwood, Dalbergia Melanoxylon Kazushi Nakai1,2* , Soichi Tanaka2, Kozo Kanayama2 and Tsuyoshi Yoshimura2
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Nakai et al. J Wood Sci (2020) 66:67 https://doi.org/10.1186/s10086-020-01915-x Journal of Wood Science ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access Flow deformation characteristics of African blackwood, Dalbergia melanoxylon Kazushi Nakai1,2* , Soichi Tanaka2, Kozo Kanayama2 and Tsuyoshi Yoshimura2 Abstract African blackwood (ABW: Dalbergia melanoxylon) is a valuable tree in Tanzanian local community forests, and heart- wood has been mainly utilized as an irreplaceable material in musical instruments, e.g., clarinet, oboe and piccolo. Since its use is generally for the production of musical instruments only, most of the harvested volume is wasted due to defects that would afect the quality of fnal products. Wood fow forming can transform bulk woods into materials in temperature/pressure-controlled mold via plastic fow deformation. The main object of this study was to evaluate the deformation characteristics of ABW heartwood in developing the potential of wasted ABW parts in terms of the efective material use. The deformation characteristics of heartwood were examined by free compression tests. Speci- mens were compressed along the radial direction at 120 °C, and air-dried heartwood was dramatically deformed in the tangential direction. The plastic fow deformation of ABW was amplifed by the presence of both extractives and moisture. In particular, the ethanol/benzene (1:2, v/v) soluble extractives in heartwood may have contributed to fow deformation. The results of the dynamic mechanical analysis showed that the air-dried heartwood exhibited softening in a temperature range over 50 °C. The ethanol/benzene-soluble extractives contributed to the softening behavior. The clarifed deformation characteristics of ABW can contribute to more efcient material use of local forests. Keywords: Dalbergia melanoxylon, African blackwood, Wood fow forming, Plastic fow deformation, Dynamic viscoelasticity Introduction population density that has been estimated as 9–90 trees/ African blackwood (ABW), Dalbergia melanoxylon, is ha [3–6]. the national tree of Tanzania, called “Mpingo” in Swahili. It is mostly the heartwood of ABW that is utilized in Te tree naturally occurs in the dryland of sub-Saharan the production of musical instruments, especially wood- Africa, including in eastern African countries such as winds, e.g., clarinets, oboes, piccolos, and bagpipes, due Tanzania and Mozambique. Tese two countries actually to its specifc characteristics. It is normally purplish- stock intensive natural resources of this tree, and they black in color, and extremely heavy, having an air-dried have recently provided most ABW timber. In Tanzania, density of 1.1–1.3 g/cm3 [7, 8], while loss tangent (tanδ) ABW trees tend to be observed in a semi-deciduous for- in vibration properties is lower than other general hard- mation including deciduous and evergreen trees, i.e., the wood species [9]. Tese characteristics are greatly difer- miombo woodlands, which are characterized by an abun- ent from those of the milky-white sapwood, which has an dance of three genera: Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Iso- air-dried density of 0.75 g/cm3 [7]. berlinia [1, 2]. Te trees naturally grow in clusters, with a We recently reported that the growth characteris- tics of ABW are afected by the surrounding environ- ment, i.e., topography, climate and human activities. *Correspondence: [email protected]; kazushi_nakai@rish. Nevertheless, the tree can survive under various envi- kyoto-u.ac.jp 2 Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, ronmental conditions with intensive population [6]. Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan Several defects that frequently occur in natural trees, Full list of author information is available at the end of the article such as lateral twists, deep futing, and knots including © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/. Nakai et al. J Wood Sci (2020) 66:67 Page 2 of 11 cracks, can afect the operation of sawmills [10]. Tey the results might contribute to improvement of the gen- also infuence the properties of musical instruments. eral material utilization of ABW. Tus, sawmills can produce only a small amount of the necessary quality timber, with an actual timber yield of Materials and methods only 9% [11]. Currently, ABW is traded as one of the Wood specimens most high-priced timbers in the world; meanwhile, this Specimens of ABW were obtained from logs over 24 cm inefcient utilization has threatened the species’ future in diameter at breast height, harvested in 2018 at the For- existence [11, 12]. In Tanzania, wasted ABW is fre- est Stewardship Council (FSC)-certifed forest located quently used as an energy resource, e.g., charcoal and in the Kilwa District, Lindi Region, Tanzania. Two types fuelwood. As such, it is sold at prices very much lower of specimens were prepared for this study. Disk-shaped than the timber [13]. Tus, additional uses for ABW specimens of ABW heartwood obtained from tangential waste could potentially contribute to the development sections of the wood with 15-mm diameter (longitudi- of local communities. nal, L × tangential, T) and 2-mm thick in the radial direc- Wood fow forming is a novel technique for molding tion were prepared for the free compression test with 20 three-dimensional products from bulk wood [14]. It has replicates. Rectangular specimens of ABW (heartwood been suggested that wood fow deformation is plastic and sapwood), measuring 30 mm (L; longitudinal direc- fow deformation due to the slipping of wood cells in or tion) × 1 mm (R; radial direction) × 5 mm (T; tangential around the intercellular layers under specifc tempera- direction), were prepared for the dynamic mechanical tures [15]. Plastic fow deformation occurs under high analysis with 15 replicates per specimen. All specimens compressive load after two types of compressive defor- were cut from air-dried timber conditioned for over mation stages: elastic deformation and densifcation 3 months at room temperature, and specimens were kept deformation [15, 16]. Te bulk wood of air-dried Japa- in a controlled chamber (KCL-2000, Tokyo Rikakikai Co. nese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) was deformed and Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) conditioned at 22 ± 2 °C and 60% rela- fowed in a mold by the addition of both high pressure tive humidity (RH) for over 30 days. and high temperature, i.e., 150 kN loading at 130 °C [17]. Furthermore, fow deformation could be promoted by Pretreatment prior to the tests increasing moisture content and/or adding thermosetting Figure 1a, b shows the experimental procedures for the polymers [15, 17–19]. In particular, it has been suggested disk-shaped and rectangular specimens, respectively. that an increase in the polymer content can dramatically For both, four types of treatment [air-drying (AD), water improve fow deformation [20, 21]. Timber impregnated extraction (WT), ethanol/benzene extraction (EB), and with polymer can fow based on the thermal softening oven-drying (OD)], were prepared with 5 replicates behavior of the polymer. according to the experimental procedures (Fig. 1a, b). All Te quantity of extractives in ABW heartwood has specimens were oven-dried at 105 °C for over 24 h, and been estimated to be over 15 wt% in ethanol/benzene their oven-dried weights (W0) were measured with an (1:2 v/v) solvent extraction, which is much higher than electronic scale (GH-252, A&D Company Ltd., Tokyo, in other Dalbergia species, such as Dalbergia cultrate Japan). and Dalbergia latifolia [22]. Te high concentrated Te extraction processes were applied for the WT extractives potentially work to promote fow deforma- and EB specimens (Fig. 1). Water extraction was per- tion by heating beyond the thermal softening point of formed as follows. Oven-dried specimens were soaked in them. Although identifcation and isolation of extrac- 150 mL of distilled water using a sealed Erlenmeyer fask. tives obtained from ABW heartwood have been partly Te soaked specimens were stirred for 10 min in the reported [22–25], there is little information about the water bath at 40 °C with ultrasonic treatment (Branson efect of extractives on the thermal behavior of ABW. 5510JDTH, Yamato Scientifc Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), Te main objective of this study was to reveal the and then kept in the controlled chamber at 45 ± 5 °C for deformation characteristics of ABW, and to discuss the 48 h. For the extraction, specimens from diferent sam- relationship between fow deformation of heartwood and pling parts (heartwood, sapwood) were placed in difer- thermal behavior of extractives. To examine the deforma- ent fasks to prevent the migration of extractives between tion characteristics of ABW, we conducted free compres- parts. For the EB specimens, extraction was performed sion tests. In addition, the thermal behavior of extractives in the same way using an (1:2, v/v) ethanol/benzene solu- was evaluated based on the temperature dependence of tion instead of water. the dynamic viscoelasticity of ABW in the modulus of After extraction, both the WT and EB specimens were transverse elasticity. We mainly focused on the heart- stored at room temperature for over 1 week, and then wood which occupies the large part of ABW trees, so that oven-dried at 105 °C for over 24 h to measure the extracted Nakai et al.