Preservative treatment of wood is important to extend its service life. Bamboo can serve alternatively as timber in
structural applications. However, without preservative treatment, bamboo is not durable due to its lack of natural
resistance to the biodegradable agent. This paper reported findings of a study on the durability of thermally modified
Bambusa vulgaris through Ground Contact Test (GCT) using Timber graveyard. Bamboo strips of 30 cm x 2 cm x 0.5
cm were used. Thermal treatment was conducted in vertical pressure steam sterilizer (Model LS B50L-I® and JSA-
100®). A completely randomized factorial design was employed. Bamboo strips were subjected to thermal
modification at varying temperature and time durations (untreated, 100, 110, 120, 130 and 140 °C each, for 10, 20 and
30 min) for base, middle and top sampling height, with 3x3x6 experimental design resulting into 54 treatments
combination. The weight loss of untreated samples were 15.29 ± 8.60% and 28.2 ± 14.1% for 6 and 12 months,
respectively, while weight loss mean of 13.87±2.34 and 25.1±2.9% were reported at the maximum treatment
temperature and time (140 °C/30 mins) for 6 and 12 months respectively. Despite the fairly significant effect of thermal
modification on thermally modified samples in respect to termite resistibility, thermally modified bamboo is not
effectively suitable for ground contact uses except with a concrete basement, notwithstanding thermally modified
bamboo-Glulam can be relevant in the structural usage such as flooring, wall paneling, chopping boards, tooth pick
and furniture.
Key words: Termite Resistance, durability, service life, Thermal modification, weight loss, Bambusa vulgaris
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