The tall - palm (borassus aethiopum mart) is a wood material very used in the works of traditional and semi-traditional habitat construction in Chad. However, one has knowledge on neither physical nor mechanical features of this wood of Chad. The present survey on the physical characterization of this wood shows that it has: - A humidity rate of 15.86% ? 1.18% in the duramen, 44.56% +- 2.95% in the sapwood and 47.78% +- 0.31% in the central part; - An ash rate of 1.4% +- 0.004% for duramen, 1.00% +- 0.004% for sapwood and 0,4% for central part; - A voluminal mass of 894.40 kg/m3 at 12% of humidity rate, classifying it thus among the heavy woods; - For duramen, a voluminal shrinkage of 6.05% +- 0.01%, a linear shrinkage of 2.62% +- 0.31% and a transverse shrinkage of 0.57% +- 0.26%. The knowledge of these physical features will permit to start well the survey of the mechanical and thermal behaviour of this construction material in Chad.
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