Artigo
Radial variation of microfibril angle and wood density and their relationships in 14-year-old Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake wood
Registro en:
HEIN, P. R. G.; BRANCHERIAU, L. Radial variation of microfibril angle and wood density and their relationships in 14-year-old Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake wood. Bioresources, [North Carolina], v. 6, n. 3, p. 3352-3362, 2011.
Autor
Hein, Paulo Ricardo Gherardi
Brancheriau, Loic
Institución
Resumen
The orientation of cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall along the fiber axis
has major effects on stiffness and longitudinal shrinkage and is of key
importance in wood quality. The aim of this study was to investigate the
radial variability of MFA and wood density (ρ) and their relationships in
Eucalyptus urophylla wood. Three MFA values were estimated by X-ray
diffraction at three points of each one of the 175 tangential sections, and
the basic density was measured. A decrease of microfibril angles from
pith to bark can be observed in most samples; however, some radial
strips presented different patterns of variation. For basic density, a linear
significant increase from pith to bark was confirmed. There was no
significant correlation between microfibril angle and density. The
relationships among the three MFA estimated on tangential sections of
wood were strong. The “curvature effect” due to the growth rings had a
negligible effect on the three measurements of tangential sections cut
near to the pith. This study showed that a single T value measurement
by X-ray diffraction, preferably at the centre of the tangential section, is
precisely sufficient to estimate the mean MFA of Eucalyptus urophylla
wood.