A Comparative Study Between Ignition Time (IT) And Oven Dry Density (ODD) As Fire Characteristics Of Some Tropical Timbers

Abstract

Timber is an essential raw material needed of construction in building industry andserves as source of energy in some homes. In this research, fire characteristics of fifty-seven(57) tropical timbers were investigated. The characteristics studied are: ignition time, andoven dry density. The tropical timbers with the highest IT and ODD are G. gnetoides andManilkara respectively while the ones with the least of these fire characteristics were M.indica (variety-German mango) and B. bonopozense respectively. Although greater majorityof tropical timbers with lower ODDs possess lower ignition time, greater majority of thetimbers with higher ODDs possess higher ignition time, this suggests that there is directrelationship between the ignition time of the tropical timbers and their oven dry densities.Though density is an important factor in determining the fire characteristics of timber, thecellular structure, molecular composition, orientation of fiber and timber extractives (egresins) deserve a special attention in ultimate result. In this work , identification of thetimbers that are fire resistant and otherwise are compared with respect to ignition time ofthese tropical timbers with their oven dry densities.