Temperature and moisture effects on selected properties of wood fiber-cement composites

The effects of moisture cycling on the dimensional stability and temperatur e cycling on the compressive strength of treated wood fiber-cement composit es were investigated, The Kraft softwood fibers and the hardwood fibers wer e treated with an aqueous acrylic emulsion or alkylalkoxysilane prior to ma nufacturing into wood fiber-cement composites. Moisture cycling results ind icated that the treated fiber-cement composites were more resistant to dete rioration than the neat cement specimens. The alkylalkoxysilane-treated fib er-cement composites resisted deterioration more than the acrylic emulsion- treated fiber-cement composites. Treated hardwood fiber-cement composites w ere more resistant than the treated Kraft fiber-cement composites. The effe cts of temperature cycling on the compressive strength values produced simi lar results. The treated fibers were more resistant to deterioration than t he neat cement. The alkylalkoxysilane-treated Kraft and hardwood fiber-ceme nt composites had higher average compressive strength values than the acryl ic emulsion-treated wood fiber-cement composites. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.