Effects of an impregnation procedure for prevention of wood cell wall damage due to drying

Drying of wood may lead to readily observable macroscale cracks. Recently observations were made indicating that also at the level of cell walls, damage occurs due to drying. A method is presented where green wood is impregnated using a solution of water and a bulking compound such as glycerol. Tens...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Wood science and technology 2001-02, Vol.34 (6), p.473-480
Main Authors: THUVANDER, F, WALLSTRÖM, L, BERGLUND, L. A, LINDBERG, K. A. H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Cell walls
Drying
Exact sciences and technology
fracture
Fracture mechanics
Glycerol
Impregnation
Mechanical woodworking and drying
Organic chemistry
Polymer industry, paints, wood
Polymera konstruktionsmaterial
Polymeric Composite Materials
Stresses
Sustainable development
Wood
Wood. Paper. Non wovens
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Drying of wood may lead to readily observable macroscale cracks. Recently observations were made indicating that also at the level of cell walls, damage occurs due to drying. A method is presented where green wood is impregnated using a solution of water and a bulking compound such as glycerol. Tensile strength parallel to the grain for wood impregnated in the green state was compared with that for ordinary dried wood and for wood impregnated after drying. Data demonstrate significantly higher strength for wood impregnated in the green state. It is postulated that this is due to damage in the cell walls of non-impregnated wood where the damage is induced by the drying stresses. Support for this hypothesis is also presented in the form of fractography results. For wood impregnated in the green state, damage development during drying is limited. This is because the impregnating chemical (glycerol in the present case) in the cell wall substitutes some of the moisture and therefore limits the drying stresses.
ISSN:0043-7719
1432-5225
1432-5225
DOI:10.1007/s002260000065