Flexural properties of wood I-beams flanged with tropical hardwoods

The paper is aimed at evaluating the flexural properties of wood I-beams flanged with two tropical hardwoods: castanha-de-macaco (Cariniana micrantha) and marupá (Simarouba amara). The flanges were nondestructively tested and used to assemble 16 MDF-webbed wood I-beams. Two adhesive types were used for bonding flange to web, namely, resorcinol-formaldehyde and castor-oil based polyurethane. Results showed that flexural properties of I-beams were highly affected by the flange stiffness and transversal vibration method showed models with the highest coefficient of determination. Castanha-de-macaco flanged I-beam presented flexural properties higher than marupá flanged I-beam. On the other hand, adhesive type affected only modulus of elasticity and resorcinol-formaldehyde yielded stiffer I-beam. All tested I-beams showed suitable flexural properties in comparison with data found in the literature. Although this was a preliminary study, the potential of tropical hardwoods as I-beam flange materials had been demonstrated and the research effort should be continued.