Comparative study of some engineering properties of teak, mahogany and agba structural timbers in Makurdi, Nigeria

Structural Timber plays major role in housing and bridge construction programmes of many developing nations. In Makurdi, Nigeria many types of structural timber are used for roof truss. This research finds some of the engineering properties of Teak, Mahogany and Agba structural timbers, commonly used for this purpose. Laboratory experimental procedures were used for the research work. Teak was discovered to have about 17 and 12 percent more moisture content than mahogany and agba respectively. The water absorption values of agba, mahogany and teak are 29, 26 and 38 percent respectively. These results indicate that teak could have the most cellular structure of the timbers. The mean compressive strength of agba, mahogany and teak are 10, 32 and 40 N/mm2 respectively. Teak has the greatest modulus of elasticity of about 92 N/mm2. When the timbers were subjected to oven temperature of 105 degrees Celsius, for 24 hours, the tensile strength of the timbers was reduced by about 94 percent