Physical and Mechanical Properties of Acacia Auriculiformis A. Cunningham Ex Benth Used As Timber in Benin

Acacia auriculiformis has been adopted in Benin as an energy wood through the firewood project since 1985. Increasingly, people use it as timber due to scarcity of conventional species and its availability while its physical and mechanical parameters are little known. It was determined the percentage of heartwood, density, modulus of elasticity and shear modulus of this wood in order to appreciate its current use as timber and to estimate its exploitable age. 18 trees of 5; 8-10 and 20 years were sampled from plantations of Sèmè, Pahou and Itchèdè-Toffo. It appears that from 8 years onwards, the percentage of Acacia auriculiformis heartwood is above 70%. With medium module of elasticity, the density and the mechanical parameters of Acacia auriculiformis have low variability between 8 and 20 years. Compared to species conventionally used, its current use is justified and suggest an exploitability age of 15 years to be refined. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 05-04-2021 Revised 20-05-2021 Accepted 21-05-2021 Published 16-06-2021