Dimensional responses of wood under cyclical changing temperature at constant relative humidity

Abstract

To investigate dimensional responses of wood under dynamic temperature condition, poplar (populous euramericana Cv.) specimens, 20 mm in radial (R) and tangential (T) directions with two thicknesses of 4 and 10 mm along the grain, were exposed to cyclic temperature changes in square wave between 25°C and 40°C at 60% relative humidity (RH) for three different cycling periods of 6 h, 12 h and 24 h. R and T dimensional changes measured during the cycling gave the following results: 1) Transverse dimensional changes of the specimens were generally square but at an opposite phase and lagged behind the imposed temperature changes. The phase lag was inversely correlated with cycling period, but positively related to specimen thickness, while the response amplitude was directly proportional to cycling period, but in a negative correlation with specimen thickness. 2) The specimens showed swelling hysteresis behavior. The heat shrinkage coefficient (HSC) became greater as cycling period increased or specimen thickness decreased. 3) Dimensional changes of the specimens produced deformation accumulation during repeated adsorption and desorption. The deformation accumulating ratio decreased with an increase in cycling period and specimen thickness. 4) Wood suffered 1.5 times as many dimensional changes per unit temperature variation as per unit humidity variation, and this deformation behaved even more seriously under static condition.