Calibrations Based on near Infrared Spectroscopic Data to Estimate Wood-cement Panel Properties

Some scientific contributions have used near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a rapid and reliable tool for characterizing engineered wood products. However, to our knowledge, there are no published papers that used this technique in order to evaluate wood-cement panels. The main objective of this paper was to evaluate the ability of NIR spectroscopy to estimate physical and mechanical properties in wood-cement panels. The woodcement panels were produced using Eucalyptus grandis x E. urophylla, Pinus taeda, and Toona ciliata woods with Portland cement under different manufacturing conditions. Wood-cement panels were characterized by traditional methods, and Partial Least Squares regressions were used to build calibrations. Our cross-validated models for MOR, IB, and TS24h of the panels yielded good coefficients of determination (0.80, 0.82, and 0.91, respectively). Based on the significant absorption bands and regression coefficients of the PLS models, our results indicate that cellulose and aromatic groups in lignin are components that play an important role in the calibrations.